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•/•_ 







THE 



MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



BY 



/ 
JOHN D' ALTON, Esq., M.R.I.A., 



BARRISTER AT LAW. 



DUBLIN : 
HODGES AND SMITH, COLLEGE-GREEN. 



M.DCCC. XXXVIII. 



n 



A 









*/ 



DUBLIN: 
PHINTED BY It. GRAISBEItRY. 



BISHOPS AND ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 

DOWN TO THE REFORMATION. 



PAGE. 

Livinus ... . . . . . . . . 16 

St. Wiro 18 

Disibod 20 

Gualafer 21 

St. Rumold ib. 

Sedulius .......... 24 

Cormac ib. 

Donat 26 

Patrick 27 

Donat O'Hanly 35 

Samuel O'Hanly 37 

Gregory 41 

St. Laurence O'Toole 51 

John Comyn 68 

Henry de Loundres 79 

Luke . 90 

Fulk de Saundford 95 

John de Derlington 104 

John de Saundford . . 106 

William de Hothum . . 110 

Richard de Ferings 114 

John Lech 120 

Alexander de Bicknor 123 

John de St. Paul . 134 

Thomas Minot . . . 138 

Robert de Wikeford 142 

Robert Waldby .146 

Richard Northalis . . . . . . . . 149 

Fhomas Cranley 151 

Richard Talbot . . 153 

Michael Tregury 159 

John Walton 1 66 

Walter Fitzsimon 171 

William Rokeby 178 

Hugh Inge 182 

John Allen 184 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN 



SINCE THE REFORMATION. 



ARCHBISHOPS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOPS. 



George Browne 
Hugh Curwen . 
Adam Loftus 
Thomas Jones . 
Lancelot Bulkeley 
James Margetson 
Michael Boyle . 
John Parker 
Francis Marsh . 
Narcissus Marsh 
William King . 

John Hoadly 
Charles Cobbe . 



William Carmichael . 

Arthur Smyth . 

John Cradock . 

Robert Fowler . 

Charles Agar 

Euseby Cleaver 

John G. delaPoerBeresford 

William Magee 

Richard Whateley 



PAGE. 

196 

235 

240 | 

250 { 

253} 

275 * 

280 

283 

284 

290 

298 

330 
339 



Matthew de Oviedo 
Eugene Matthews 
Thomas Fleming 



} Peter Talbot . 
5 Patrick Russell . 



i 



342 
343 3 
344 
347 * 
349 
352 J 
353 
354 > 
360 



Peter Creagh 
Edmund Byrne . 
Edward Murphy 
Luke Fagan 

John Linegar 
Richard Lincoln 

Patrick Fitzsimon 



John Carpenter 
John Thomas Troy 
Daniel Murray . 



PAGE. 

370 
384 

390 

430 

446 
457 
459 
465 
466 

466 
469 

471 
472 
480 

488 



SUBSCRIBERS 



TO THE 



HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF DUBLIN, 



WITH 



MEMOIRS OF THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 1 



*HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUTCHESS OF KENT, COUNTESS 

OF DUBLIN, Etc. 

*HIS EXCELLENCY THE EARL OF MULGRAVE, LORD LIEUTE- 
NANT OF IRELAND, Etc. 



Academy, Royal Irish, 10 copies. 

Achonry, Rt. Rev. Dr. Mac Nicholas, 
R. C. Bishop of, and his Clergy 
herein named, 7 copies. 

Adams, Rev. B., Ballintobber. 

Alen, Lieut. Col., Lower Gardiner-st. 

Anster, John, Esq. LL. D., &c. 

*Antiquaries, Society of, Edin- 
burgh. 

Archbold, R. Esq., county Kildare. 

Archbold, R. Esq., Upper Dorset-st. 

Ardagh, Rt. Rev. Dr. Higgins, R. C. 
Bishop of. 

Ardill, T. Esq., Aungier-st. 

Armagh, Most Rev. Dr. Crolly, R.C. 
Archbishop of, and his Grace's Clergy 
not herein named, 25 copies. 



Arthure, B. Esq., Dominick-st. 
Arthure, J. Esq., Seafield, Swords. 

Bagot, J. J. Esq. D. L., Castle-Bagot. 
Baird, J. R. Esq., Civil Engineer. 
Baldwin, H. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Baldwin, Mrs., Gardiner's-place. 
Barnewall, Sir Aylmer, Bart. 
Barrett, Alfred, Esq., Baggot-st. 
Barrett, J. Esq., Sen., Baggot-st. 
Barrett, Wm. Esq., York-st. 
Barrington, M. Esq., Crown Solicitor, 

&c. &c. 
*Barron, Henry W. Esq., M. P. 
*Barron, Pierce George, Esq., D. L. 
Barry, J. M. Esq., county Wicklow. 
Barry, M. Esq., Barrister at Law. 



a Although these works are, for convenience, given in separate volumes, they have been 
undertaken and published simultaneously at a total price, in accordance with the requisition 
alluded to in the preface to the County History, and the prospectuses subsequently issued. 
Some few, who sent their names as subscribers for that History without expressly naming 
the Memoirs, if they designed to make a distinction, will see it was impossible to effect it, 
and pardon what, it is hoped, they may not regret, the addition of the latter work within the 
very limited rate of subscription. 



VI 



SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 



Barry, Paul, Esq., Rathmines. 

Battersby, Mr. W. J., 2 copies. 

*Beasley, H. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Beasley, T. J. Esq. Fitzwilliam-square. 

Belfast Royal Institution. 

Bellew, Michael, Esq., D. L., 2 copies. 

Bianconi, Charles, Esq., 5 copies. 

Black, Rev. Mr., Rathdrum. 

Blackburne, Rt. Hon. Francis, Q. C. 

*Blake, Rt. Hon. A. R., Chief Re- 
membrancer. 

*Blake, J. H. Esq., Q. C. 

Bolton, C. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Bolton, R. Esq., Bective Abbey. 

Bolton, W. E. Esq., Nelson-st. 

*Bowles, Rev. W. L., Salisbury. 

Boyd, George Augustus, Esq. 

Boyd, Rev. J., Lissanuffy. 

Boyle, Rev. C, Ballybough. 

Boyse, Samuel, Esq., Bannow. 

Boyse, Thomas, Esq., Bannow. 

*Brady, M. Esq., Solicitor-General. 

Brady, Rev. Mr., Dunabate. 

Brady, John, Esq., Clones. 

Brady, Rev. Mr., New-Bridge. 

Brady, D. C. Esq., Newrv. 

Brady, D.F. Esq. M. D.,"Dominick-st. 

Brady, Rev. William, Elphin. 

Breen, J. Esq. M. D., Cavendish-row. 

Brenan, Rev. W., New Ross. 

Brennan, Rev. H. Creeve, Elphin. 

Brennan, Rev. M., Ratcoria. 

Brierly, T. Esq., Richmond Hill. 

Brooke, William, Esq., Q. C. 

Browne, Rev. M., Balla. 

Bryan, R. B. Esq., Eccles-st. 

Burke, Rev. Mr., Ballymore-Eustace. 

Burke, Very Rev. B., R. C. Dean of 
Tuam. 

Burke, J. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Burke, Rev. M., Waterford. 

*BustjE, Rt. Hon. C. K., Chief Justice 
of the Queen's Bench. 

Butler, Rev. R., Trim, 2 copies. 

Byrne, A. Esq., county Wicklow. 

Byrne, D. Esq., county Wicklow. 

Cahill, Rev. Mr., W T illiamstown. 
Cainen, Rev. J., Maynooth. 
Cainen, Rev. P., Castlebar. 
Callanan, Rev. J., Clontarf. 
Campbell, Rev. Mr., James's Gate, 2 

copies. 
Canavan, Rev. G., Naul. 
Canavan, Rev. P., Balclare. 
Carew, Rev. Mr., Maynooth. 
Carey, Rev. Mr., Swords. 
Carroll, J. Esq., Gt. Charles-street. 



Carroll, Rev. T., Westland-row, 5 cop. 

Carroll, Rev. T., Booterstown. 

Carthy, Rev. Mr., Kilquade. 

Cashel, Most Rev. Dr. Slattery, R. C. 
Archbishop of, and his Grace's Clergy 
herein named, 25 copies. 

Caulfield, James, Esq., Newtown. 

Cavanagh, Rev. J., Kilcommon. 

Chambers, J. Esq., Rathfarnham, 2 
copies. 

*Charlemont, Rt. Hon. the Earl of. 

Clancy, Rt. Rev. Dr., R. C. Bishop of 
British Guiana, 2 copies. 

Clancy, J. Esq., Fitzwilliam-square. 

Clarke, Rev. J., Clondalkin. 

Clarke, J. D. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Clarke, T. Esq., 123, L. Baggot-street. 

*Clements, Lord, M. P. 

Clements, Dr., Bohn, Keill. 

Clements, E. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

*Cloncurry, Rt. Hon. Lord. 

Cloran, H. Esq., M. D., Gloueester-st. 

Close, J. S. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Cloyne, Right Rev. Dr. Crotty, R. C. 
Bishop of. 

Cobbe, C. Esq., Newbridge, 2 copies. 

Coleman, Very Rev. Dr., R. C. Vicar- 
Gen. Dublin diocese, 2 copies. 

Coleman, Rev. J. Svrinford. 

Coleman, Very Rev. T., Whitefriar-st. 

Coleman, Rev. T., Arklow. 

Colgan, Rev. A., Castledermot. 

Colgan, Rev. R. J., Whitefriar-st. 

Comerford, J. Esq., county Wicklow. 

Connell, F. Esq., county Wicklow. 

Connelly, Rev. M., Achills. 

Conolly, Mr. Thomas, Dalkey. 

Cooke, Rev. J., Waterford. 

Cooke, Rev. P., Bohela. 

Cooper, Rev. P., Marlborough-st. 

Corballis, J. R. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Corballis, R. Esq., Roebuck. 

Corbally, , Esq., Rathbeal. 

Corbet, W. Esq. M. D., L. Baggot-st. 

Corcoran, Rev. Mr., Cappawhite. 

Corcoran, Rev. Mr., Drogheda. 

Corley, Rev. M., Newport. 

Cormack, Rev. Mr., Booterstown. 

Corr, Rev. Mr. 

Cosslett, Rev. A., Ballymacarrett. 

Costello, Rev. Mr., Abington. 

Costello, Rev. T., Louisburgh. 

Costigan, Rev. A., North Anne-st. 

Coyne, Rev. E., Annagh. 

Coyne, Richard, Esq., 4, Capel-st. 

*Crampton, Hon. Mr. Justice. 

Creighton, G. W. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Crickard, Rev. N., Glenravil. 



SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 



Vll 



Croke, Rev. Mr., Anacarty. 
Crosthwaite, Leland, Esq., D. L. 
Cullen, W. Esq., N. Cumberland-st. 
Cullinan, Rev. P., Bridge-st. 
Cummin, Rev. Mr., x\thy. 
Cummins, Rev. Mr., Cashel. 
Cunningham, Rev. J., Denmark -st. 
Cunningham, Rev. P., Becan. 
Curoe, Rev. D., Randalstown. 
Curoe, Rev. P., Tyrella. 
Curoe, Rev. R., Upper Mourne. 
Curran, W. H. Esq., Commissioner of 

the Insolvent Court. 
Curtis, Rev. J., U. Gardiner-st. 

D' Alton, Count, S. Frederick-street, 
2 copies. 

Daly, , Esq., Wicklow. 

Daly, Peter, Esq., Daly's Grove. 

D'Arcy, G. J. N., Esq., Hyde Park. 

D'Arcy, John, Esq., Ratheny. 

D'Arcy, M. Esq., Newry. 

Darley, W. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Davy, E. Esq., Professor. 

Day, Hon. Mr. Justice. 

Day, Rev. A., Wkitefriar-st. 

Dee, Rev. Mr., Loughmore. 

Delany, Rev. Mr., Blessington. 

Delany, Rev. P., Navan. 

Dempsey, Rev. L., Denmark-st. 

Denvir, Rev. J., Aughagallen. 

Derry, Rev. Mr., Maynooth. 

Digby, T. G., Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Dixon, Rev. Mr., Maynooth. 

*Doherty, Rt. Hon. Ld. Chief Justice. 

Doherty, Rev. M., Kiltubrid. 

Doherty, Rev. P., Wicklow. 

Donleavy, Very Rev. Dean, Sligo. 

Dooley, Rev. Mr., Castleknock. 

Dowdall, Rev. Mr., Meath-st. 

Dowling, Rev. J., Multifarnham. 

Dowling, Rev. P., John's-lane. 

Down and Connor, Rt. Rev. Doctor 
Denvir, R. C. Bishop of, and his 
Clergy herein named, 27 copies. 

Doyle, Rev. J., James's-street. 

Doyle, Rev. P., Rathmines. 

Doyle, Rev. P. J., Booterstown. 

Dromore, Rt. Rev. Dr. Browne, R. C. 
Bishop of. 

*Drummond, Thomas, Esq., Under Se- 
cretary, Dublin Castle. 

Drummond, Rev. W. H., L. Gardiner- 
street. 

Dublin, Most Rev. Dr. Murray, R. C. 
Archbishop of, 10 copies. (His 
Grace's Clergy, herein named, hav- 
ing engaged 160 copies.) 



Dublin Library Society. 
Duffey, Rev. Mr., Naul. 
Duffy, Rev. P., Becan. 
Dunford, J. Esq., Waterford. 
Dungan, Rev. Mr. Meath-st. 
Dunne, Rev. J., Meath-st. 
Dunne, J. H. Esq., Wiliiamstown. 
Dunne, Rev, L. Castledermot. 
Dunne, Rev. Mr., Dundalk. 
Dunne, Mr. Thomas, Bray. 
Durcan, Very Rev. Dean, Colooney. 
Dwyer, J. Esq., Barrister at Law, 2 

copies. 
Dwyer, T. Esq., L. Mount-st. 

*Education, Commissioners of, 

Marlborough-st. 
*Egerton, Rt. Hon. Lord Francis. 
Ellis, Alexander, Esq., Kilpoole. 
*ElIis, H. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Ellis, W. H. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Ellis, YV. Esq., county Wicklow. 
Elphin, Rt. Rev. Dr. Burke, R. C. 

Bishop of, and his Clergy herein 

named, 13 copies. 
Elrington, Rev. C. R., U. Fitzwilliam- 

street. 
Ennis, Rev. Mr., Beldoyle. 
*Esmonde, Sir T. Bart., D. L., 5 copies. 

Fagan, Rev. Mr., Arklow. 

Fagan, Rev. Mr., Cabinteely. 

Fagan, W. Esq., Cork, 10 copies. 

Fahy, Rev. M., Elphin. 

Fanning, Rev. M., Raheen. 

Farley, Rev. Mr., Westland-row, 

Farrell, Rev. P., Dunlavin. 

Farrell, Mr. P., Cooke-st. 

Feeny, Rev. W., Westport. 

Fergus, Rev. S., Partry. 

Ferns, Rt. Rev. Dr. Keating, R. C. 

Bishop of, and his Clergy herein 

named, 5 copies. 
Field, de la, J. Esq., London, 6 copies. 
*Fingal, Rt. Hon, the Earl of. 
Finlay, J. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Finn, Rev. Mr., Irishtown. 
Finn, J. Esq., Bishop-st. 
Finn, Lawrence, Esq., Bishop-st. 
*Fitzgerald and Vesci, Rt. Hon. 

Lord. 
Fitzgerald, Rev. Dr., Carlow College, 

3 copies. 
Fitzgerald, Very B-ev. Mr., Castletown 

Delvin, 3 copies. 
Fitzgerald, Rev. Edward. 
Fitzgerald, Rev. J., Athlone. 
Fitzgerald, Rev. J. Jun., Athlone. 



Vlll 



SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 



Fitzgerald, Rev. J., Headfort. 
Fitzpatrick, O'K. Esq., Capel-st. 
Fitzsimon, C. Esq., Clerk of the Crown 

and Hanaper. 
Flanagan, Rev. M., Francis-st., 3 cop. 
Flanagan, Rev. Mr., Killenaule. 
Flanely, Rev. Mr., Crossboyne. 
Flanely, Rev. W., Newport. 
Fleming, Rev. Mr., Maynooth. 
Fogarty, Rev. Mr., Lusk. 
Fogarty, P. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
*Foster, The Hon. Baron. 
Fowler, J. V. Esq., Mecklenburgh-st. 
French, George, Esq., Q. C. 
Frizell, Charles, Esq., Stapolin. 
Frizell, Richard, Esq., Stapolin. 
Furlong, Rev. Mr., Maynooth. 
*Furlong, J. S. Esq., Q. C. 
Fynn, R. N. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Gaffney, Very Rev. Dean, Maynooth. 
Gallagher, M. Esq., Swinford. 
Galway, Rt. Rev. Dr. Browne, R. C. 

Bishop of, and his Clergy herein 

partly named, 14 copies. 
Gavan, Rev. Mr., Blanchardstown. 
Gavin, Rev. A., Crossboyne. 
Gardiner, Mr. P., Queen-st. 
Geoghegan, Rev. P., Merchants'-quay. 
Geraghty, Rev. P., Tuam. 
Gibbons, Rev. J., Mount Bellew. 
Gibbons, Rev. P., Killgivour. 
Gibbons, Rev. R., Castlebar. 
Gill, Mr. M. H., Gt. Brunswick-st. 
Gilligan, Rev. P. J., James's-st. 
*Goff, Rev. T., Black-Rock. 
Graham, Rev. Mr., Knocklong. 
Grant, Rev. John, Wicklow. 
Green, Rev. Mr., Garristown. 
Greene, Rev. J., Coleraine. 
Greene, J. A. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Grene, J. Esq., Clonliffe Parade. 
Griffith, Rt. Rev. Dr., R. C. Bishop 

at the Cape of Good Hope. 
Guthrie, J. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Hackett, M. Esq., Sackville-st. 
Haddock, I. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Hagarty, Rev. J., Bryansfort. 
Haire, J. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Haliday, C. Esq., Kingstown. 
Halpin, Rev. T., New-Bridge. 
Haly, Rev. D., Neale. 
Haly, F. B. Esq., Mountmellick. 
*Hamilton, Sir W. R., Astr. Royal. 
*Hamilton, G. A. Esq., D. L, 
Hamilton, J. H. Esq., D. L. 
Hamilton, Rev. J., Booterstown. 



Hamilton, Rev. J., Marlborough-st. 
Hanley, Rev. Mr., Lattin. 
Hanlon, Rev. J., Maynooth. 
Hanna, Rev. J., Saul. 
Hanna, W. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Hardiman, Rev. T., Knock. 
Hardinge,W. H. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Harold, Rev. W. N., Denrnark-st. 
Hawlin, J. Esq., Kilkenny. 
Hayden, Rev. Mr., Hospital. 
Heavern, Rev. P., Claremorres. 
Hendrick, Rev. W., Booterstown. 
Henn, Jonathan, Esq., Q,. C. 
Henry, Rev. R., Castlebar. 
Heraghty, Rev. M., Ross. 
Hewett, Rev. Mr., Solohed. 
Hewston, S. Esq., Tipperary. 
Hickey, Rev. Mr., Doon. 
Hobart, R. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Hodges, T. Esq., Kilternan House. 
Hone, J. Esq., Harcourt-st. 
Horgan, Rev. M., Blarney. 
Howth, Rt. Hon. the Earl of, D. L., 20 

copies. 
Huddart, Rev. T. P., Mountjoy-square. 
Hudson, W. E. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Hughes, VeryRev.H., Merchants'-quay. 
Hughes, Rev. J., Newport. 
Hughes, Rev. P., Balla. 
Hughes, William, Esq., Kingstown. 
Hussey, A.S. Esq., D.L.Westown, 2 cop. 
Hussey, Rev. Mr., Irishtown. 
Hussey, Rev. J. 
Hutton, Robert, Esq., M.P. 
Hutton, T. Esq., Summerhill, 2 copies. 
Hyland, Rev. Mr., Dunlavin. 

Innes, Cosmo, Esq., Edinburgh. 
Joyce, Rev. Henry, Partry. 
Joyce, Rev. P., Kilcooly. 

Kane, D. R. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Kavanagh, Rev. J., Annagh. 
Kavanagh, Rev. T., Westport. 

Kearney, , Esq., Ballynakill. 

Kearney, Rev. J., Francis-st. 

Kearney, Rev. P., Newbridge. 

Kehoe, Mr., Bray. 

*Kelly, D. H. Esq., D.L., Castlekelly. 

Kelly, Rev. Mr. 

Kelly, E. T. Esq., M.D., Maynooth. 

Kelly, Rev. J., Arran-quay. 

Kelly, Rev. M. B., Clondalkin. 

Kelly, T. Esq., L. Gardiner-st. 

Kelly, Rev. W., Ballyhaunes. 

Kelly, Rev. W., Professor, Maynooth. 

Kennedy, Colonel Shaw. 

Kennedy, J. T. Esq., Summer-hill. 



SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 



IX 



Kennedy, M. J. Esq., Richmond. 
Kenny, Very Rev. P., Up. Gardiner-st. 

3 copies. 
Keogh, Rev. F., Annadown. 
Keogh, G. R. Esq., Co. Carlow. 
Kernan, G. Esq., Dominick-st. 
Kerr, Rev. B., Belfast. 
Kiernan, P. Esq., C. C, Leitrim. 
Kildahl, H. S. Esq., Sackville-st. 
Killala, Rt. Rev. Doctor O'Finan, 

R. C, Bishop of, 4 copies. 
*Killaloe, Rt. Rev. Doctor Sandes, 

Bishop of, 
Killen, Rev. W., Armoy. 
Kinsella, Very Rev. W., Whitefriar-st. 
Kirwan, Rev. Mr., Boherlahan. 
Kirwan, J. Esq., M.D., Marlborough-st. 
Kirwan, Rev. P., Tesara. 

*Lansdowne, Most Noble the Mar- 
quis of, 

Larkin, Rev. Mr., Thurles. 

Laver, J. Esq., London. 

Lawler, Rev. J., Athy. 

Lawler, J. Esq., Waterford. 

Lawless, B. Esq., Harcourt-st. 

Leahy, Rev. P., Thurles. 

Legh, P. T. Esq., Lr. Gardiner-st. 

*Leitrim, Rt. Hon. the Earl of, 

Lentaigne, J. Esq., M. D., Gt. Den- 
mark-st. 

Lentaigne, J. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Lindesay, F. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Litton, E. Esq., Q. C. 

Loftus, Rev. J., Tuam. 

Long, Rev. Doctor, Meath-st. 

Lord, J. Esq. 

Loughnan, H. J. Esq., Kilkenny. 

Loughnan, J. M., Esq., Barrister at 
Law. 

Loughnan, J. Esq., Kilkenny. 

Lube, D. G. Esq., Barrister at Law, 2 
copies. 

Lyle, Acheson, Esq., Second Remem- 
brancer. 

Lynch, Rev. G., Westland-row. 

Lynch, Rev. J., Westland-row. 

Lynch, J. M. Esq., Whiteleas. 

Lynch, Rev. J., Ahoghill. 

Lynch, J. F., Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Lynch, P. Esq., Kill of the Grange. 

Mac Alenon, Rev. J., Portaferry. 
Macan, John, Esq., Commissioner of 

the Court of Bankruptey. 
Mac Auley, Rev. B., Downpatrick. 
Mac Awley, Rev. Mr., Marlborough-st. 
Mac CafFry, Rev. T., Tuam. 



Mac Cartane, Rev. N., Kilclief. 

Mac Carthy, Rev. Mr., Blanchards- 
town. 

Maclean, S. Esq., Stephen's Green, N. 

MacCormick, Rev. Mr., Booterstown. 

Mac Cullagh, J. Esq., Professor. 

Mac Daniel, A., Esq., Co. Wicklow. 

Mac Donnell, Very Rev. Dean.,Cashel. 

Mac Donnell, Rev. Mr., Skerries. 

Mac Donnell, A. Esq., Dublin Castle, 3 
copies. 

Mac Donnell, Edw. Esq., Merrion-sq. 

Mac Donnell, Sir Francis, 5 copies. 

Mac Donnell, J. Esq., Lr. Gardiner-st, 

Mac Donnell, Mr. John, Lr. Ormond- 
quay. 

Mac Donnell, Rev. R., F. T. C. D. 

Mac Donough,Rev.Mr., Westland-row. 

Mac Garry, Rev. D., Ballymena. 

Mac Garry, Rev. P., Turlough. 

Mac Grath, J. Esq., Kingstown, 2 copies. 

Mac Hale, Rev. J., Kilcommon. 

Mac Hugh, Rev. John. 

Mac Hugh, Rev. J., Corrofin. 

Mac Kenna, Rev. Mr., Rathdrum. 

MacKenna, Rev. J., Cushendall. 

Mac Kenna, T. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Mac Keogh, P. Esq., Belvidere-place. 

Mac Laughlin, Rev. R., Ahascragh. 

Mac Loughlin, Rev. H., Loughgiel. 

Mac Lea, Rev. W., Lower Ards. 

Mac Loughlin, C. Esq., Fitzwilliam- 
place. 

Mac Mahon, Rev. M., Islandeady. 

Mac Manus, Rev. J., Claremorres. 

Mac Manus, Rev. P., Kilmena. 

Mac Mullen, Rev. J., Glenavy. 

Mac Mullen, Rev. P., Rasharkin. 

Mac Mullen, Rev. R., Bright. 

Mac Nally, Rev. C, Maynooth. 

Mac Namara, Major, M.P. 

Mac Namara, Very Rev. Dean, Lime- 
rick. 

Mac Namara, R. Esq., Loughscur. 

Mac Namara, D. Esq., York-st. 

Mac Nicholas, Rev. T., Caracastle. 

Maguire, Rev. J., Lower Ards. 

Maguire, Rev. T., Innismagrath. 

Maher, Rev. J., Clarendon-st. 

Maher, T., Esq., Waterford. 

Manders, R. Esq., Brackenstown. 

*Martley, John, Esq., Q. C. 

Matthews, E. Esq., Talbot-st. 

Matthews, Rev. R., Ballymena. 

Maxwell, C. Esq., Kilkenny. 

*Maynooth College Library. 

Meagher, Rev. D., Tipperary. 

Meagher, Rev. W., Marlborough-st. 



X 



SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 



Meara, C. Esq., Monkstown. 

Meath, Rt. Rev. Doctor Cantwell, R. 
C. Bishop of, 

Meehan, Rev. P. L., Exchange-st. 

Meighan, Rev. M., Gurtnahoe. 

Meyler, Very Rev. Doctor, R.C. Vicar- 
General of Dublin Diocese, 10 copies. 

Miley, Rev. J., Marlborough-st. 

Mills, Rev. Mr., North Anne-st. 

Mitchell, J. Esq. M.D., Harcourt-st. 

Molloy, J. S. Esq., Capel-st. 

Molloy, Rev. Mr., Skerries. 

Monks, Rev. J., Bridge-st. 

Montague, Rev. P., Finglas. 

Montague, Rev. Doctor, President of 
Maynooth College. 

Moore, Richard, Esq., Q. C. 

*Moore, Thomas, Esq., Sloperton Cot- 
tage, Devizes. 

Morgan, Mr. F., Grafton-st. 

Moriarty, Rev. Mr., Arran-quay. 

*Morpeth, Rt. Hon. Viscount. 

Morres, Rev. Mr., Galway. 

Morris, Rev. J., Ballinrobe. 

Morris, Rev. Mr., Borrisoleigh. 

Mullaney, Rev. T., Drom. 

Mullen, Mr. G., William-st., 4 copies. 

Mullens, B., Esq., Fitzwilliam-sq. 

Mullins, Rev. P., Kilvine. 

Mulloy, Rev. J., Donaghpatrick. 

Murphy, Rev. Dr., Bridge-st. 

Murphy, Rev. Mr., Marlborough-st. 

Murphy, Rev. Mr., Narraghmore. 

Murphy, Rev. J., Denmark-st. 

Murphy, Rev. J., Merchants'-quay. 

Murphy, P. M. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Murphy, Rev. T. A., Sandyford. 

Murphy, T. Esq., Waterford. 

Murray, Sir James, M. D., Merrion-sq. 

Murray, T. Lamie, Esq. 

Murray, Mr. W., Little Bray. 

Mylot, Rev. P., Kilvine. 

Nolan, J. D. Esq., Grenville-st. 
Nolan, Mr., Nassau-st. 
Noone, Rev. D., Knockmoy. 
Noone, Rev. J., Mount-Bellew. 
*Northumberland, His Grace the 
Duke of. 

Oates, Rev. J., Clarendon-st. 
O'Beirne, E. Esq., L. Gardiner-st. 
O'Beirne, J. Esq. M.D., Surgeon Ex- 
traordinary to Her Majesty. 
O'Brien, Very Rev. D., Waterford. 
O'Brien, Rev. Mr., Knockany. 
O'Brien, W. S. Esq., M.P. 
0'Callaghan,J.S.Esq.,BarnsteratLaw, 



O'Callaghan, Rev. M., Drumcliff! 

O'Connell, Daniel, M.P., 10 copies. 

O'Connell, Rev. A., L. Exchange-st., 
3 copies. 

O'Connell, Rev. Mr., Kilmeena. 

O'Connor, Rev. Mr., Seven Churches. 

O'Connor, Charles, Esq., L. Gardiner- 
street. 

O'Conor Don, M.P. 

*0'Conor, Matthew, Esq , 2 copies. 

O'Donnell, Very Rev. Mr., Galway. 

O'Donnell, Rev. E., Waterford. 

O'Dowd, J , Esq., Barrister at Law. 

O'Dowd, Rev. T., Westport. 

O'Dowda, J. Esq., Harcourt-st, 3 cop. 

O'Driscoll, W. J. Esq., Parsonstown. 

O'Dwyer, Rev. J., Islandeady. 

*0'Ferrall, J. Esq., Barrister at Law, 
Commissioner of Police. 

O'Gorman Mahon, Montpelier. 

O'Grady, Rev. J., Islandeady. 

O' Grady, Rev. P., Knock. 

O'Hagan, T. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

O'Hanlon, Rev. J., Clarendon-st. 

O'Hara, Rev. Mr., Achonry. 

*0'Hara, H. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

O'Kelly, Count, Chateau de la Motte, 
France. 

O'Leary, J. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

O'Loghlen, Rt. Hon. Michael, Mas- 
ter of the Rolls, 5 copies. 

O'Malley, Rev. T., Marlborough-st. 

O'Mara, T. Esq., Lisnaskea. 

O'Mara, T. P. Esq , Lisnaskea. 

O'Neill, Rev. H., Kilcoo. 

O'Neill, Neill John, Esq. 

O'Reilly, Rev. M., Athlone. 

O'Reilly, N. Esq., Waterford. 

O'Reilly, Rev. P., James's-st. 

O'Reilly, R. P. Esq., M.D., Sackville- 
street. 

O'Reilly, J. A. Esq., Gardiner's-place. 

O'Roarke, M. Esq., County Wicklow. 

O'Roarke, Rev. P., Celbridge. 

Ossory, Rt. Rev. Dr. Kinsella, R. C. 
Bishop of. 

Otway, Rev. C, Aungier-st. 

Otway, Cegsar, Esq. 

Otway, J. H. Esq., Barrister at Law. 

Palles, A. C. Esq., Mountjoy-square. 
*Palmerston, Rt. Hon. Viscount. 
Parkinson, G. Esq., Richmond- place. 
Parsley, Rev. L., Arran-quay. 
Pennefather, L. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
*Perrin, Rt. Hon. Mr. Justice. 
Peyton, J. R. Esq., Laheen. 
*Phillips, M. Esq., Roosky Lodge. 



5UBCRIBERS NAMES. 



XI 



Phillips, T. Esq., Clonmore House. 
*Plunket, Rt. Hon. Lord, Lord Chan- 
cellor, 5 copies. 
Plunket, Joseph Howard, Esq. 
Pope, Rev. T., Athy. 
*Povvell, M. Esq., Clonskeagh. 
Power, E. Esq., Filazer, Exchequer. 
Power, F. Surgeon., Dominick-st. 
♦Power, J. Esq., M.P. 
Power, J. Esq., Carrick-on-Suir. 
Power, Rev. J. A., Clontarf. 
Power, M. Esq., Inns- quay. 
Prendergast, Rev. E., Ballingarry. 
Prendergast, Rev. P., Kilcommon. 

Quan, Miss C. M., Mall, Waterford. 
Quin, Rev. A., Westland-row. 
Quin, T. Esq., Ballymore-Eustace. 
Quinlan, Rev. M., Golden. 
Quinn, Rev. Mr., Balla. 

♦Radcliff, Rt. Hon. John, LL.D. 
Radcliff, J. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Raphoe, Rt. Rev. Dr. M'Gettigan, R. 

C. Bishop of. 
Redmond, Rev. E., Arklow. 
Redmond, H. J. Esq., Co. Wicklow. 
Redmond, Rev. J., Arklow. 
Renehan, Rev. L., Vice-President of 

Maynooth College. 
Reynolds, J. Esq., County Wicklow. 
♦Rice, Rt. Hon. Thomas Spring. 
♦Richards, Rt. Hon. Baron. 
Roach, Rev. N., Rathmines. 
*Robeck, Baron de, Merrion -square. 
Roche, Rev. B., Galway. 
Roche, Rev. J., Enniscorthy. 
Roche, Rev. L., Rathfarnham. 
Roche, N. W. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Rochfort, Coll, Esq. 
Rooney, Rev. C, Westland-row. 
*Rorke, A. Esq., Tyrrelstown House. 
*Rorke, E. Esq., Tyrrelstown House. 
Rossmore, Lord. 
♦Royal Library, St. James's. 
♦Royal Dublin Society, 2 copies. 
Russell, Rev. C, Maynooth College. 
Ryan, Rt. Rev. Dr., R. C. Bishop of 

Limerick. 
Ryan, Rev. Mr., Dunahate. 
Ryan, Austin, Esq. 
Ryan, J. Esq., Mullingar. 
Ryan, P. B. Esq., Thurles. 

♦Sadleir, Rev. Doctor, Provost of 

Trinity College, Dublin. 
Scallan, R,ev. J., Taghmon. 
Segrave, H. J. Esq., Glencarrig. 



Seton, A. Esq. Barrister at Law. 
Sheehan, Rev. J., Waterford. 
Sheridan, Rev. B., Kingstown. 
Sheridan, J. Esq., Church-street. 
Sheridan, Rev. M., Mayo. 
Shrewsbury, Rt. Hon. the Earl of, 5 

copies. 
Simpson, P. Esq., D. L., Cloncorrick 

Castle. 
Simpson, R. A. Esq., L. Gloucester-st. 
Sirr, Rev. J. D., Dublin Castle. 
Smith, Rev. J., Exchange-st. 
Smithwick, E. Esq., Kilkenny. 
Smithwick, Rev. P., Irishtown. 
Smyth, Rev. P., Sandyford. 
Smyth, S. Esq., County Wicklow. 
Smyth, T. Esq., Bray. 
Sohan, Rev. J., Irishtown. 
Somerville, Sir W. M., Bart., M.P. 
Stafford, Rev. P., Ballymore-Eustace. 
Stafford, Rev. W., Rathmines. 
Stanley, R. Esq., L. Ormond-quay. 
Stennett, Rev. C. B., Kilquade. 
Stevenson, J. Esq., Belfast. 
Stewart, W. Esq., Frescati. 
♦Stock, J. Esq., LL.D., Judge of the 

High Court of Admiralty, 2 copies. 
Stuart, Very Rev. C, St. John's-lane. 
♦Sugden, Rt. Hon. SirE. B., Bart. 
Sullivan, R. Esq., Kilkenny. 
Sweetman, W. Esq., M. Gardiner-st. 
Swords, T. Esq., Maynooth. 

Talbot de Mal a.hide, Rt. Hon. Lord, 

25 copies. 
Taylor, J. J., Esq., Swords-House, 10 

copies. 
Taylor, J., Esq., Newbrook. 
Teeling, B. C, Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Tench, G., Esq., Harcourt-st. 
Tennent, Doctor, Belfast. 
Tennent, R. J. Esq., Belfast. 
Thompson, C. Esq., Belfast. 
Tickell, E. Esq.Q. C, 6 copies. 
Tighe, R. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Tighe, Rev. D., Kilcoleman. 
Tighe, Rev. J., Kilkivan. 
Tobin, Rev. M. E., Whitefriar-st. 
Tommins, Rev. Mr., Denmark-st. 
Toole, Rev. Mr., Narraghmore. 
Toole, Mr., Great Britain- st. 
Travers, M. Esq., Wicklow. 
Trimleston, Lord, 20 copies. 
Trinity College, Dublin, the Rev. 

the Provost and Board of, 20 copies. 
Tuam, Most Rev. Doctor Mac Hale, 

R. C. Archbishop of, and his Grace's 

Clergy, herein named, 67 copies. 



Xil 



SUBSCRIBERS NAMES. 



Tyrrell, Rev. P., Bridge-st. 
Tyrrell, G. Esq., Lower Sackville-st. 

Vernon, Lord, 16 copies. 
Vernon, J. E. V. Esq., Clontarf. 
Vigors, N. A. Esq., M. P. 

Waldron, Rev. M., Cong. 
Wall, Rev. R., St. John's-st. 
Walsh, Rev. Mr., Kingstown. 
Walsh, Rev. Mr., North Anne-st. 
Walsh, Rev. Mr., St. John's-st. 
Walsh, Rev. E., Kilteely. 
Walsh, Rev. J., Rollestown. 
Walsh, Rev. L., Culfeaghtrin. 
Walsh, Rev. R., Headford. 
Walsh, Hugh, Esq., Drumsna. 
Walsh, T. Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Ward, Rev. A., Aughagower. 
Ward, Rev. P., Ross. 
Ward, Rev. P., Ballinrobe. 
Ward, Rev. P., Aughagower. 
*Warren, R. Esq., Rutland-square. 
Waterford, Right Rev. Doctor Foran, 
R. C. Bishop of. 



Waters, Rev. T., Annaghdown. 
Watson, H. Alderman, Limerick. 
Webber, C. T., Esq., Barrister at Law. 
Welpley, Rev. S., Meath-st. 
West, John Beatty, Esq., Q. C. 
*Westenra, Hon. Henry R., M. P. 
Whelan, Very Rev. W., Clarendon-st. 
White, Very Rev. R. A., Denmark-st. 
White, Captain, Cabinteely. 
White, Rev. J., Lower Exchange-st. 
White, R. Esq., Fleet-st. 
Whitehead, Rev. R. F., Maynooth Col- 
lege. 
Willis, T. Esq., Upper Ormond-quay. 
Woods, Rev. P., Marlborough-st. 
Wright, R. Esq., Mespil. 
Wright, T., Esq., Barrister at Law. 
*Wyse, T. Esq., M. P. 

Yore, Rev. Mr., 3 copies. 
Young, Rev. J., Baldoyle. 
Young, S. Esq., Mountjoy-place. 
Young, Rev. S., Glenarm. 
Young, Rev. W., Baldoyle. 



Those marked with asterisks engaged Imperial Paper Copies exclusively. 






The following Names were communicated too late for insertion, in the above List : 

Bourke, Walter, Esq., Barrister at Law, Dublin. 

Craig, J. T. Gibson, Esq., St. Andrew's-square, Edinburgh. 

Dalyell, Sir John Graham, Hanover-street, Edinburgh. 

Iona Club, Edinburgh. 

Loftus, Rev. Thomas, Annadown. 

O'Connor, Rev. John, Tipperary. 

Signet Library, Edinburgh, per David Laing, Esq. 

Skene, W. F. Esq., Edinburgh. 

Turnbull, W. B. D. D., Esq., Advocate, Edinburgh. 



MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



The Diocese of Dublin has been during so many 
centuries united with that of Glendalough, that it 
is difficult to treat of either exclusively. Together 
they extend over a surface of about fifty Irish miles 
in length by thirty-six in the greatest breadth, com- 
prising the whole of the County of Dublin, the most 
of Wicklow, a great part of Kildare, and portions of 
the Queen's County and Wexford, an estimated area 
of 477,950a., of which 142,050a. are in the County 
of Dublin, 257,400a. in Wicklow, 75,000a. in Kil- 
dare, 600a. in the Queen's County, and 2,900a. in 
Wexford. The acreable quantity of church lands 
belonging to the united sees, and lying within the 
above scope, has been returned in 1831 as 23,926a. 
profitable, and 7,100a. unprofitable, let at £3,202 
per annum and £4,257 annual renewal fines. While 
a return of 1833 states the respective number and 
value of the benefices in both sees as, forty worth 

B 



2 MEMOIRS OF 

from £30 to £200 per annum ; twelve from £200 to 
£250 ; eight from £250 to £300 ; seven from £300 
to £350; eight from £350 to £400; four from 
£400 to £450 ; six from £450 to £500 ; nine from 
£500 to £550; four from £550 to £600; two 
from £600 to £650 ; four from £650 to £700 ; three 
from £700 to £750; four from £750 to £1000; 
two from £1100 to £1200; and one from £1300 to 
£1350 per annum. The gross income of those 114 
benefices being calculated as £24,363 18s. 6d., ex- 
clusive of the values of thirty-eight other benefices 
not returned in the estimate. The patronage of the 
whole may be thus classified. — The Crown presents 
to fourteen ; the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the 
Rolls, and the three Chief Judges, in conjunction 
with bis Grace the Archbishop, to two ; the chapter 
of Christ Church, or its members separately, to ten ; 
lay patrons to eighteen, and the Archbishop to the 
remainder. 

The union of the bishoprics, alluded to, took place in 
the year 1214, and still subsists ; both having been 
thereupon divided into ten deaneries, severally styled ; 
— 1. Decanatus Christianitatis, Dublin; 2. Taney; 

3. Swords ; 4. Ballymore ; 5. Bray ; 6. Wicklow ; 7- 
Arklow ; 8. Castledermot ; 9. Athy ; and 10. De 
Saltu Salmonis. The number has been since in- 
creased to twelve, the names of which stand thus in 
the Consistorial Registry of this diocese, viz. 1 . Deca- 
natus Christianitatis, Dublin ; 2. Swords ; 3. Lusk ; 

4. Finglas ; 5. Newcastle ; 6. Taney ; 7- De Saltu 
Salmonis, alias Leixlip ; 8. Bray ; 9. Wicklow ; 10 



THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 3 

Arklow ; 11. Ballymore ; and 12. Omurthy ; which 
last denomination includes the two more ancient 
deaneries of Castledermot and Athy. 

The dignitary, who presided over this most im- 
portant province of Ireland, was not only anciently 
honoured with a seat in the King's Privy Council in 
England, where he used to attend his Majesty in 
many weighty consultations, as shewn hereafter, but 
had also within his liberties of the Cross,* or his own 
church-lands, the rights of a prince palatine, with the 
power of even condemning to death criminals offend- 
ing therein, for whose execution a gallows was erected 
at Harold's Cross. It is, perhaps, needless to remark, 
that this extremity of jurisdiction is now altogether 
disused ; his seneschal, however, still holds a court 
for other purposes of the archiepiscopal authority, in 
a handsome structure erected in Upper Bride-street, 
adjoining to which is the gaol for confining debtors 
within his liberties. This officer is usually a bar- 
rister, selected by the prelate's appointment, as con- 
firmed by the respective deans and chapters of Christ 
Church and St. Patrick's, and the individual so named 
chooses his own register, who is always an attorney 
of the superior courts. The Archbishop also holds 
a Consistorial Court at the King's Inns, and, besides, 
his other extensive franchises, the regulation of the 
police in the manor or liberty of St. Sepulchre was, 
until modern enactments, vested in his officers, as fully 
as it existed in the city magistrates for the liberty 

* See " History of the County of Dublin," at "Swords" in 1465. 

b2 



4 MEMOIRS OF 

of the citv ; he has, likewise, the right of a market 
in Patrick-street. 

There are in the diocese of Dublin two cathe- 
drals, a peculiarity in which Saragossa alone partici- 
pates. Both of those are situated within the city 
and liberties of Dublin, viz. Christ Church and St. 
Patrick's, of which it is only necessary here to remark, 
that the former was built about the year 1038, and 
that its chapter consists of the dean, precentor, chan- 
cellor, treasurer, the archdeacon of Dublin, and three 
prebendaries, besides two clerical and seven lay vicars- 
choral ; while the latter was built about the year 
1190, on the site of an old parochial church which 
was said to have been erected by St. Patrick. Its 
chapter is constituted of a dean, precentor, chancellor, 
treasurer, the archdeacons of Dublin and Glen da- 
lough, and twenty prebendaries, the prebend of Cullen 
being united to the archbishopric. There are also in 
this establishment four minor canons, four clerical 
and seven lay vicars-choral. The present dignitaries 
and prebendaries of both cathedrals are as follow :— 





CHRIST CHURCH. 






Established. 


Roman Catholic, 


Dean. 


The Lord Bishop of Kildare. 


[Christ Church having 


Precentor. 




been constituted a ca- 


Chancellor. 


Rev. Stewart Segar Trench. 


thedral by Henry the 


Treasurer. 


Venerable Henry Cotton. 


Eighth, after his renun- 


Archdeacon of 
Dublin. 


Venerable John Torrens. 


ciation of the Pope's 
supremacy, its digni- 




PREBENDARIES. 


ties are not continued 


St. Michael's. 


Venerable Thos. B. Monsell. 


in the Roman Catholic 


St. Michan's. 


Rev. John Rowley. 


Hierarchy.] 


St. John's. 


Venerable T. P. Magee. 





THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



Dean. 

Precentor. 

Chancellor. 
Treasurer. 
Archdeacon of 

Dublin. 
Archdeacon of 
Glendalough. 



Cullen. 

Kilmactalway . 

Swords. 

Si. Jagoe. 

St. Audeon's. 

Clonmethan. 

Wicklow. 

Timothan. 

Mullaghiddart. 

Castlehwck. 

Tipper, 

Tassagard. 

Dunlavin. 

Maynooth. 

Howth. 

Rathmichael. 

Monmohenock. 

Tipperkevin. 



Donaghmore. 
Stagonil. 



ST, PATRICK'S. 

Established. 
Very Rev. H. R. Dawson. 

Rev. John Wilson. 

Rev. Hosea Guinness. 
Rev. James H. Todd. 

Very Rev. John Torrens. 
Very Rev. J. Langrish. 

PREBENDARIES. 

His Grace the Archbishop of 

Dublin. 
Rev. John Reade. 
Rev. W. Magee. 
Rev. W. H. Irvine. 
Rev. Charles Strong. 
Rev. M. L. Short. 
Rev. Archd. T. P. Magee. 
Rev. L. Coddington. . 
Rev. W. L. Mayers. 
Rev. George O'Connor. 
Rev. Walter Burgh. 
Venerable C. Irwin. 
Rev. M. Morgan. 
Rev. Thomas Tisdal. 
Rev. A. Irwin. 
Rev. J. Hunt. 
Rev. L. Fitzgibbon. 

Rev. John Crosthwaite. 



Rev. F. E. Trench. 



Rev. R. Daly. 



Roman Catholic. 
Very Rev. P. Coleman, 
(styled Vicar General.) 
Very Rev. W. Meyler, 
(styled Vicar General.) 
Rev. M. Flanagan. 
Rev. A. O'Connell. 

Rev. John Hamilton. 
Rev. W. Yore. 



Rev. M. Toole. 

Rev. Edan Redmond. 
Rev. W. Stafford. 
Rev. P. Woods. 
Rev. John Grant. 
Rev. James Campbell. 
Rev. M. Doyle. 
Rev. James Monks. 
Rev. Aug. Costigan. 
Rev. John Ennis. 
Rev. M. Kelly. 
Rev. J. W. M'Gauley. 
Rev. C. Rooney. 
Rev. J. Miley. 
Rev. C. J. Finn. 
Rev. J. Coleman. 
Rev. A. Roche. 

"Rev. J. Laphen, 
and 

.Rev. P. J. Doyle. 
Rev. J. P. Kearney, 
and 

,Rev. W. Meagher. 
Rev. P. Cooper. 



6 MEMOIRS OF 

It has been alleged by some, in order to account 
for the singular occurrence of two cathedrals in one 
city, that St. Patrick's was the cathedral of Glenda- 
lough, and Christ Church of Dublin. Mr. Mason, 
however, in his invaluable history of the former edi- 
fice, successfully combats this opinion, and proves 
that both belonged to Dublin ;* in accordance with 
which conclusion, it is to be observed, that, before 
St. Patrick's cathedral was built, or the union of the 
sees contemplated, the church, on whose site it was 
erected, was (in 1179) in Pope Alexander's Bull de- 
scribed as one of the parishes and within the diocese 
of Dublin ; while a contemporaneous Bull of the same 
Pope mentions the cathedral of Glendalough as being 
in the little city of that name, where its ruins are still 
identified. 

In 1214, as before mentioned, the two sees were 
united, for the reasons explicitly declared in the Tes- 
timonial of Felix O'Ruadan, Archbishop of Tuam, 
and of his suffragans to whom the Pope had occasion 
to refer the subject. The original of this curious ec- 
clesiastical instrument is still extant in the archives of 
Christ Church, and has the archbishop's seal pendant 
to it, but those of his suffragans have crumbled away. 
It is neither dated nor witnessed, but appears evi- 
dently from its contents to have been drawn up in 
the year 1214, immediately upon the death of Wil- 
liam Piro the last recognised Bishop of Glendalough, 
and refers to those grants and documents hereinafter 

* See Mason's Hist. St. Patrick's Cathedral, p. 4. 



THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

more particularly noticed in the order of their respec- 
tive dates. The document is in the following words: 
" A letter concerning the Palls sent into Ireland. 
The testimony of the Archbishop of Tuam and his 
suffragans : Master John Paparo, legate of the Roman 
See, coming into Ireland, found a bishop dwelling at 
Dublin, who then exercised episcopal offices within 
the walls. He found in the same diocese another 
church (ecclesiam) in the mountainous parts, which 
was also called a city, and had a certain rural bishop 
(chorepiscopum), but the same legate appointed Dub- 
lin, which was the best city, the metropolis of that 
province, delivering the pall to that bishop who then 
governed the church of Dublin ; and he appointed 
that that diocese, in which both cities were, should be 
divided, the one part thereof to fall to the metropolis, 
the other to remain to him who lived in the moun- 
tains, with the intention (as we firmly believe), that 
that part also should revert to the metropolis, on the 
death of the bishop who then governed in the moun- 
tains. Which object he would have immediately 
effected, had not the insolence of the Irishry, who 
then had power in that territory, obstructed him. 
When the Lord Henry, King of England, learned 
from manv what had been the intention of the said 
legate, he granted the church in the mountains to the 
metropolis, adhering to the intention and will of the 
said legate. In like manner our present Lord John, 
King of England, having heard from the great and 
credible men of that territory, what the said legate 
did and intended, granted the said part to John the 



8 MEMOIRS OF 

- 

predecessor of the present Archbishop of Dublin. 
Besides, that holy church in the mountains, although 
anciently held in great veneration on account of St. 
Kevin, who there led an eremite life, has been so 
deserted and desolate for the last forty years, that 
instead of a church it is a cave of robbers, and a hot 
bed of thieves, so that more homicides are committed 
in that valley than in any other part of Ireland, on 
account of its deserted and extensive solitude." 

Accordingly a Bull of Pope Innocent the Third, 
dated the 25th of February, 1215, details the par- 
ticulars of the above testimonial, and ratifies the 
union; while another Bull of the same Pontiff of the 
18th of May, 1216, enumerating and confirming the 
suffragan sees of the province of Dublin, omits Glen- 
dalough, as then merged in it ; and a Bull of Pope 
Honorius the Third further enforces the acts of his 
predecessor in this matter. 

Immediately after this event, the chapter of St. 
Patrick's, having asserted that that of Glendalough was 
thereby abolished, transmitted a petition to the Court 
of Rome relative to the difference which arose thereout 
between them and R. de Bedford, then Dean of Glen- 
dalough, and afterwards Bishop of Lismore. The sub- 
ject was thereupon referred by the Pope to the said 
Felix O'Ruadan, Archbishop of Tuam, whose decree in 
favour of the chapter of Glendalough was confirmed 
by Pope Honorius in the first year of his pontificate,* 
from which time both chapters, although distinct cor- 



Allen's Registry. 



THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 9 

porations, became canonieally united, and possessed 
of equal power and interest in all matters that con- 
cerned the diocese. 

It would be now extremely difficult to define the 
precise limits of the respective bishoprics, as they ex- 
isted immediately previous to the time of their union. 
From a consideration, however, of two Bulls of Pope 
Alexander the Third, both dated in 1 179? and extant 
in the Crede Mihi, and of certain grants of John 
Earl of Moreton, hereafter mentioned, the boundary 
of the see of Dublin may be defined, as having in- 
cluded Dalkey and its island, Kiltuc (near Crinken), 
Rathmichael, Kilgobbin, half Taney, Rathfarnham, 
Kilnasantan (St. Anne's church), Tallagh, Clondal- 
kin, Rathcoole, and by Alderg, &c. ; while the parallel 
of Glendalough comprised Shankhill, Stagonil, half 
Taney, Newcastle, Lyons, by Alderg, Confee, Lara- 
brien, Tachdoe, Stacumney, &c. Kilcullen was in- 
disputably in Glendalough diocese, Alderg was so 
much on the confines, that an inquisition was necessi- 
tated in 1329 to determine to which see it apper- 
tained, when, it being proved that it paid half a mark 
proxies to the Archdeacon of Dublin, the jury gave 
their verdict accordingly in favour of that diocese. 

Such having been the extent of Dublin as a dio- 
cese, it is to be observed, that as an ecclesiastical 
province it comprehended, with the sees of Dublin 
and Glendalough, those of Kildare, Ossory, Terns, 
and Leighlin, all being included within the civil pro- 
vince of Leinster. Under the Church Temporalities' 
Act, however, the Bishopric of Kildare is, on its next 



10 



MEMOIRS OF 



vacancy, to be permanently united with those of 
Dublin and Glendalough ; and, in like manner, the 
Bishopric of Ossory is on vacancy to be permanently 
united with those of Ferns and Leigh! in. The act 
also provides, that, on the next avoidance of the see 
of Cashel, that province is to be reduced to the rank 
of a bishopric, and, together with all its dependant 
sees, is to be suffragan to the Archbishop of Dublin, 
whose jurisdiction will then extend over the whole of 
Munster, the greater part of Leinster, and a certain 
portion of Galway in Connaught. 

Having premised thus much in relation to the 
statistics of the diocese, the records of its history next 
invite attention, and, although it would be difficult to 
attain any positive evidence that Dublin was the seat 
of a bishop's jurisdiction so early as the time of St. 
Patrick, yet, as he founded a church there about the 
year 456, it may be reasonably inferred, that he did not 
in that particular instance deviate from the practice of 
Episcopal Church Government, which he introduced 
in other parts of the island. 

Christianity, it may be here necessary to observe, 
had made some progress in Ireland before his mis- 
sion.* Tertullian in the first century mentions, 
that parts of the British Islands, which had never 
been approached by the Romans, were subjected to 
true Christianity, Britain and Ireland being both de- 



* See very fully on this subject, a prize "Essay" written by the 
author of this work, and published in the Royal Irish Academy Trans- 
actions, vol. xvi. part 1., from which the above is chiefly extracted, 
and where the authorities are given. 



THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 11 

nominated by the Romans British Islands, and so 
Baronius construes the passage. Eusebius more than 
confirms Tertullian, for he asserts that some of the 
apostles had proceeded beyond the ocean to the 
islands called British, in which he is followed by 
Nicephorus, who, in his account of the dispersion of 
the apostles, says, that one chose Egypt and Libya, 
while another was appointed for the remote islands of 
the ocean, and for the British Isles. Vincentius of 
Beaumais particularizes James the son of Zebedee as 
having preached in Ireland, and selected seven dis- 
ciples there with whom he went to Jerusalem, where 
he suffered martyrdom ; to which Julian of Toledo, 
in his Chronicle, adds, that not only was St. James 
in Ireland, but that he addressed thence a canonical 
letter to the Jews who were scattered through Spain. 
The Irish annals further suggest this early intro- 
duction of the faith, when they allege, that in the 
middle of the third century Cormac King of Ireland 
carried on a theological discussion with its heathen 
priesthood so earnestly, that his sudden death is attri- 
buted to their provoked resentment. St. Chrysostom 
in the fourth century asserts, that the inhabitants of 
the British Islands not only believed in Christ, but 
erected churches and altars of sacrifice to God. 
Rupert states, that in 350 Elephius, the son of a 
Scoto-Hibernian King, suffered martyrdom, having 
been decapitated by the Emperor Julian, who was 
present at the execution ; and Gennadius records, 
that subsequently Celestius, when a very youth, wrote, 
from the monastery where he sojourned, three letters 



12 



MEMOIRS OF 



in the manner of little books to his parents in Ireland, 
which writings, he adds, are necessary to every one 
who has the love of God. This very Celestius, 
however, afterwards became the great disciple of 
Pelagius and the advocate of his heresy, in conse- 
quence of which he was in the year 412 condemned 
in the synod of Carthage ; St. Jerome, in the most 
obvious interpretation of his words, says, that Celestius 
was an Irishman, but some refer the words, according 
to the only other sense in which they can be under- 
stood, to Pelagius himself.* 

Prosper expressly writes, that St. Patrick was 
sent from Rome the first Bishop to those of the 
Scots (the Irish were then exclusively so called) that 
believed in Christ ; while Bede affirms, that it was 
not the custom of the Church of Rome to ordain a 
bishop for any nation, before Christianity had esta- 
blished some roots there ; and accordingly various 
saints are actually enumerated as of Ireland before 
St. Patrick, or Palladius who immediately preceded 
him. It has, however, been urged, in evidence of 
the paucity of this Christian congregation, that 
Palladius, when he was leaving this country in des- 
pair, considered two monks and three churches suf- 
ficient " for the spiritual service of the scanty con- 
verts."! Yet it should be considered that Palladius 
was scarcely one year in the country, and that his 
ministry was exercised but very partially : St. Patrick 



* See St. Jerome, Prol. ad L. 3. Comment, in Jeremiam, and 
Prol. ad L. 1. of the same Commentaries. 
f Bolland. Vita S. Patricii, p. 580. 



THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 13 

admits, in the works attributed to him, that he did 
encounter, in the earlier portion of his progresses 
through Ireland, persons who had been baptized ; and 
undoubtedly his successful reception here must have 
been greatly attributable to these precursors. Their 
labours and pious exercises were the faint twilight 
of the Christian revelation, that first broke upon 
Ireland, and but foretokened the coining of him, who 
was happily to fulfil the alleged prediction of the 
Magian prophets,* and whom all tradition and bi- 
ography mark as the apostle of universal Ireland. 

It is not necessary here to enter into the contro- 
versies, that some Hardouins have sought to raise 
against the voice of history, in reference to the birth- 
place, the era, and even the existence of this Irish 
missionary. If the two last points of scepticism 
were as innocent as the first, they should never have 
been noticed ; all have, however, been discussed in 
the " Essay" before alluded to, to which it may here 
suffice to refer. The results of his preaching are 
yet more evident ; it threw a sudden charm over the 
island ; the inquiring flocked to him from every 
quarter, and went back to their families, converts 
and proselytes ; episcopal jurisdictions were marked 
out, and prelates and clergymen were appointed, in 
numbers sufficient for the labours of religious con- 
troversy and spiritual direction. Ecclesiastical schools 

were every where established ; the country was filled 



■ " A perverse and obstinate prophet shall come from parts beyond 
the sea, to preach a new doctrine, to whom many will lend their at- 
tention, and few resist his progress." Colgan. Trias Thaum. p. 123. 



14 MEMOIRS OF 

with bishops, priests, and religious bouses ; the monks 
dispersed themselves over every district, and no place 
was more justly celebrated for the sanctity and learn- 
ing of its several monastic fraternities. The retreats, 
which they selected, they cleared and cultivated with 
their own hands ; they fasted and prayed without in- 
termission, instructing even more by their example 
than their precept, until the country of their mission 
was hallowed by the glorious appellation — the Island 
of Saints. 

It has been remarked, that this " quick and easy 
reception of Christianity in Ireland, is an unequivocal 
proof, not only of the liberal and tolerating spirit of 
the religion it supplanted, but also of enlightened 
civilization and charitable forbearance, certainly with- 
out parallel in the early records of the Christian 
world." The glorious result must also bear eloquent 
testimony to the mild and conciliating manners of 
the new priesthood, the charities with which they 
insinuated their doctrine into the heart of the country, 
founding their seminaries where the Magi (as the 
pagan priesthood of Ireland were properly denomi- 
nated) had taught, enclosing their casiols in the 
groves of the ancient rites, carving the symbol of 
Christianity on the pillar stones of heathenism ; con- 
secrating, as stations for prayer, those wells which had 
been invested with immemorial superstitions, kind- 
ling the bel-tinne for purposes of innocent diversion, 
perpetuating the sacred fire on the altar of the Most 
High, and above all, constructing the simple models 
of their churches in the shadow of the round towers ; 



THE ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 15 

thus, in every scene and object, imperceptibly suc- 
ceeding to the veneration and authority of their 
pagan predecessors. 

They were, however, not the less firm where 
firmness was essential. They diligently expounded 
the scriptures to the people ; # the enemy were met 
in controversy at their strongest holds ; and piles of 
heathen learning, the spoils of victory, were consign- 
ed to destruction. St. Patrick sanctioned the policy 
of this despoliation, and is said to have destroyed with 
his own hand two hundred volumes of the writings 
of the " Magi." His successors, no less zealous in the 
cause of truth, well merited those praises which 
Camden so liberally bestowed upon them. Enlarg- 
ing their schools, multiplying their churches, fixing 
themselves as beacons of salvation in the wildest dis- 
tricts, and every where edifying by their example, 
they attracted around them the young and the old, 
while the converts gladly flocked to their habitations 
for more frequent spiritual assistance, until little 
towns were associated, and monasteries and colleges 
incorporated. Paganism could not long withstand the 
powerful and exemplary superiority of such teachers ; 
like a mist before the rising day, it passed off from 
the broad face of the country, and only hung in 
thick but partial cloudiness over the deeper valleys 
and remoter islands of the west, or the kindred 
mountains of Caledonia. From the numerous stone 
altars, pillar stones, circles, and other like remains of 

* Jonas Vit. Columb. c. 2. 



16 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

architecture, that Mr. Hardiman, in his valuable 
History of Galway describes, as existing in the Isles 
of Arran, it would seem that these lonely rocks 
afforded it a last retreat ; while the two round towers, 
apparently the most modern of such erections, that 
still remain in Scotland, furnish similar architectural 
evidence as to that country, a position which Adam- 
nan yet more satisfactorily supports in his Life of 
St. Columba, (lib. ii. c. 34.) 

To enter into the evidences of the Christian doc- 
trine then preached, as developed in the writings of 
St. Patrick, and of other holy men of the immediately 
succeeding centuries, previous to the demoralizing 
effects of the Danish invasion, would involve a con- 
troversy which a layman should hesitate to undertake, 
and which is cheerfully committed to those who may 
be more able and willing to conduct it. In strict 
reference, therefore, to the hierarchy of the selected 
district, although, as before suggested, the materials 
for any history of the prelates of Dublin, from the 
foundation of its church by St. Patrick, down to the 
time of Bishop Donatus the Dane, are slender and 
doubtful, yet are there some afforded, at least from 
the middle of the seventh century, which it would 
be unjustifiable to suppress. 




LIVINUS. 
[Ob. 656.] 

Livinus is mentioned as " Bishop of Dublin" in 
the Officia Propria, &c, of Burke, who adds, that he 



LIVINUS. 17 

succeeded his uncle Melanchus in this see. That he 
was a native of Ireland, and received his education 
there, all authorities, Bale, Molanus, Mabillon, Fleury, 
&c, admit, and Mirseus says, he was the son of per- 
sons of distinction in that country. It is likewise 
agreed by all, that he was an Irish bishop, and his 
own poetical epistle to the Abbot Florbert, as given 
in Ussher, Epist. Hib. Syll, N. 8, confirms this; 
Masseus and others state, that, actuated by religious 
zeal, having entrusted his diocese in Ireland to the 
management of its archdeacon, he passed over to 
Ghent with three of his disciples, continued there 
for a month, during which he every day offered up 
the mass at the tomb of St. Bavo, and afterwards 
went to Esca, where he preached the gospel and 
converted numbers, until he was murdered by some 
of its pagan inhabitants on the twelfth of November 
in the year 656. He was buried at Hautam, whence 
his remains were translated in 1006 to the great 
monastery of St. Peter's at Ghent, and ultimately 
deposited in the Cathedral of St. Bavo, on the festi- 
val of Saints Peter and Paul in the same year. 

In the poetical epistle of Livinus, above alluded 
to, occur several passages, that do honour to the 
classical taste of the Irish schools of that period. 

" Audeo mira loqui, solem sine lumine vidi ; 

Est sine luce dies, sic sine pace quies ; 
Hos postquam populos conspexi luce serena, 

Sol mihi non luxit, nox fuit una mihi. 
Impia barbarico gens exagitata tumultu 

Hie Bracbanta furit, meque cruenta petit ; 

C 



18 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Quid tibi peccavi, qui pads nuntia porto, 

Pax est quod porto, cur mihi bella moves ? 

******** 

Egressus patria pompae mortalis honorem 

Sprevi, devovi, spes Deus una mihi :" &c. &c. 

An epitaph on St. Bavo by him is also extant, 
equally creditable to his taste and literary acquire- 
ments. It is published by Usher and Mabillon, 
(Scec. ii. Ben. p. 461,) and read in the old office of 
St. Bavo at Ghent, published by Gerard Salenson. 
Mabillon gives a life of Livinus, written by an ec- 
clesiastic, named Boniface. See also Bale, Sanders, 
Colgan, &c. for further particulars of this prelate ; 
while, in affirmance of the accredited tradition that 
he should be ranked as here, it is to be observed that 
the decree of Pope Benedict the Fourteenth, dated 
on the 1st of July, 1747* granted at the solicitation of 
the clergy of Ireland, and confirming the offices and 
masses of the saints of their nation, expressly styles 
St. Livinus Bishop of Dublin and Martyr, and states 
the 12th of November as the anniversary of his com- 
memoration.* 



ST. W1RO. 

i ] 

St. Wiro was born in Ireland, it is supposed in the 
district now called the county of Clare. His parents, 
who are said to have been of considerable rank, dili- 
gently attended to the formation of his mind in virtue 



De Burgo's Hib. Dom. p. 3. 



ST. WIRO. 19 

and learning ; and with such success, that he was, at 
an early period of his life, elected Bishop of Dublin ; 
and, although greatly reluctant to assume its responsi- 
bilities, was compelled by the people to take upon him 
that high charge. He accordingly went to Rome to 
receive consecration from the Pope. Plechelmus, a 
priest, accompanied him in his journey, and was con- 
secrated with him at Rome, whence Wiro, returning 
to Ireland, was received in that country with extraor- 
dinary joy. He governed this see for some time, and 
obtained a high reputation on account of his sanctity, 
but at last resigned his bishopric and went to Gaul, 
where he was honourably received by Duke Pepin de 
Heristall, " the mighty ruler and father of kings," 
who chose him for his confessor, and assigned to him 
a place proper for retirement and contemplation, 
called Mons Petri, in the diocese of Liege, Here 
St, Wiro built an oratory, which he dedicated to the 
Blessed Virgin, and called it St. Peter's monastery. 
After attaining a great age, he at last died of a fever on 
the 8th of May, on which day his festival is observed, 
but the precise year of his death is very uncertain ; 
that assigned by Harris is evidently as erroneous as 
the period to which he refers the martyrdom of Livi- 
nus. He was buried in the oratory which he had 
erected ; but, in consequence of its collegiate church 
having been transferred to Ruremond, a portion of 
the saint's remains was removed thither, while another 
was reverentially exhibited at Utrecht. See more of 
him in Mirasus and in the Bollandists ; while various 
old Irish documents and calendars contain further 

c 2 



20 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

notices as of " Bishop Wiro." See also Colgan's 
Acta Sanctorum, p. 542, 



DI3IBOD. 

[Resign. 675.] 

Disibod was born in Ireland of a noble family, 
and was remarkable for a great genius and a consi- 
derable share of learning. In the thirtieth year of 
his age he was ordained a priest, and some time after- 
wards elected bishop. When he had governed his 
see ten years he was driven from it by the insolence 
of the people, and at length compelled to resign it 
in 675, or 674 according to Marianus Scotus. He 
thereupon forsook Ireland, and, associating himself 
with three learned and religious men, viz. Gisualdus, 
Clement, and Salust, travelled into Germany, moving 
about from place to place, and preaching the Gospel 
for ten years. At last he arrived at a high woody 
mountain, which the owner of the country conferred 
upon him, and there he settled and lived an eremetic 
life. He drew to him many of the religious of the 
order of St. Benedict, and founded a monastery on 
this mountain, which, from his name, was called, as 
Arnold Wion says, Mount-Disibod, since changed 
into Dissenberg, in the lower Palatinate. He lived 
thirty years here in exercises of great severity, and 
died, worn out with extreme old age, on the 8th of 
July, but the precise year is not ascertained. 

Hildigardis, a nun, who was educated at Dissen- 
berg under the Abbess Jutta, wrote his life, which 



ST. RUMOLD. 21 

Surius has published, and whence most of the parti- 
culars here related have been taken. John Wilson, 
in his Martyr ol. Anglic, at the 8th of July, speaks 
of him as Bishop of Dublin ; but Harris, while he 
adopts the assertion on Wilson's credit, states it as 
unsupported by the authorities cited by that writer. 
Dempster affirms, that he saw a fragment of Disibod's 
composition, entitled, " De Monachorum profectu in 
solitudine agentium Liber 1."* 



GUALAFER. 

Gualafer is mentioned as Bishop of Dublin by 
Molanus, but no particulars are related of him, except 
that he baptized his successor St. Rumold. 



ST. RUMOLD. 

[Ob. 775.] 

The life of St. Rumold, Bishop of Dublin, pub- 
lished by Surius, was written by Theodoric, Abbot of 
SL Trudo, and recited on his festival ; whence, as 
well as from Molanus and several martyrologies 
and breviaries, Harris gives the following account of 
him : — " He was the son of David, a prince in Ire- 
land, (which was then divided into many petty terri- 
tories,) and was heir to his father. He was baptized 
by his predecessor Gualafer, then Bishop of Dublin, 
by whom, being well grounded in learning and virtue, 

* Ware's Bishops, p. 304. 



22 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

he forsook his pretensions to his inheritance for the 
sake of religion, and took a journey to Rome ; but, 
before this, is said to have been consecrated Bishop of 
Dublin. He first passed into Britain, then into 
Gaul ; and wherever he went preached Christ and his 
Gospel. He travelled over the Alps and arrived at 
Rome, where he received from the Pope an approba- 
tion of his labours. Having continued some time in 
Rome, he repassed into Gaul and came to Mechlin, 
where Odo, or Ado, a count of the place, together 
with his wife, received him with great humanity, and 
prevailed on him to settle there. He gave him a 
place called Ulmus, from the numerous elm trees 
growing there, where he founded a monastery ; and 
Mechlin being erected into an episcopal see, he be- 
came its first bishop. At length two ruffians (the one 
thinking he had money, the other, out of a motive of 
revenge, because Rumold had reprimanded him for 
living in a scandalous state,) fell upon him, and cruelly 
murdered him on the 24th of June, 775 ; and, to 
conceal their villany, threw his body into a river. 
Count Ado had it removed thence, and gave it an 
honourable interment in St. Stephen's church. His 
remains were afterwards translated to a church in 
Mechlin, dedicated to his memory, which is now the 
metropolitan church of the Low Countries, and one 
of the largest Gothic structures in it ; there they are 
conserved in a sumptuous silver shrine. Pope Alex- 
ander the Fourth transferred the day of the observa- 
tion of St. Rumold's festival to the 3rd of July, be- 
cause the 24th of June, on which he was murdered, 



ST. RUMOLD. 23 

was pre-occupied as the festival of St. John the Bap- 
tist. The feast of St. Rumold is celebrated as a double 
festival, with an office of nine lessons, through all the 
province of Mechlin ;'** and is also observed on that 
day in Ireland, although Pope Benedict the Four- 
teenth would have further altered the festival to the 
1st of July. 

Janning, the Bollandist, represents St. Rumold as 
an Anglo-Saxon, and gives a long history of the mira- 
cles which he effected. But the fullest particulars of 
this prelate are contained in his " Acts," &c. by Hugh 
Ward, who, however, styles him " Arch-Bishop" of 
Dublin, and affects to detail other circumstances 
equally erroneous and fanciful. There is likewise a 
very large and interesting folio work of his Acts, col- 
lected by John Baptist Soller, the Jesuit, published at 
Antwerp in 1718, and illustrated with some curious 
wood-cuts ; amongst which is one of a silver shrine, 
overlaid with gold, which was constructed in 1369 for 
the bones of this revered patron of Mechlin, at an ex- 
pense of 66,000 florins. This precious article was, in 
the wars of 1580, broken up and sold ; but the bones 
were subsequently collected, and a new shrine framed in 
1617 at about one-third of the cost of the former, and 
on a far more elegant design, as it is to this day exhi- 
bited in the cathedral. Of this also the book alluded 
to gives a drawing. 

* Ware's Bishops, (Harris's Edition,) pp. 304-5. 



24 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



SEDULIUS.. 

[Ob. 785.] 

Sedulius, in Irish Siedhiul, the son of Luaith, is 
called Bishop of Dublin in the martyrologies of Ma- 
rian Gorman and those of Tallagh. In the Annals 
of the Four Masters he is styled Abbot of Dublin, 
bishop and abbot being often used as synonimous 
terms ; and the offices of both, though in their nature 
perfectly distinct, having been often vested in the 
same person. Sedulius died on the 12th of February, 
in the year 785. 

Burke, in his office of St. Rumoldus, states, that 
when that holy man resigned the see of Dublin, Pope 
Stephen the Third conferred it on Sedulius ; and even 
Lanigan, who maintains that there were no Bishops of 
Dublin previous to Donatus, expresses much doubt 
as to excluding this individual from the honour. 

CORMAC, 

[Vivens, 890,] 

of whom Harris says, he " could find no account but 
his bare name," flourished about the year 890. When 
Gregory, King of Scotland, besieged Dublin in that 
year, and reduced its inhabitants to the utmost straits 
for want of provisions, " in the end it was concluded 
amongst them, that sith there was no means for those 
noble men, which were enclosed within that city, to 
escape the enemy's hands, and that there were none 
other of any reputation abroad able to defend the 



CO KM AC. 25 

country from the Scotchman's puissance, they should 
fall to some treaty with the Scottish king for a peace, 
to be had with so reasonable conditions as might be 
obtained, for other remedy in that present mischief 
they might devise none; and therefore this was judged 
the best way of the whole number, namely Cormac, 
Bishop of Dublin, a man for his singular virtue and 
reputation, of upright life, of no small authority 
amongst them, took upon him to go unto Gregory to 
break the matter, and so coming afore his presence, 
besought him most humbly to have compassion upon 
the poor miserable city ; and, if he had conceived any 
piece of displeasure against the citizens, that it might 
please him yet, upon their humble submission, to re- 
ceive them unto his mercy, and further to accept into 
his protection his cousin, young Duncan, (Donough,) 
unto whom the kingdom of Ireland was due of right, 
as all the world well understood."* 

Gregory refused, however, to extend any hope, 
until the city was absolutely surrendered to his dis- 
cretion, which being done, "he commanded his battle 
to stay a little, and therewith himself advanced forth 
on foot, till he came to the bishop, and, falling down 
upon his knees, he reverently kissed the crucifix which 
the prelate bore, and fully ratified his wishes ; where- 
upon, receiving humble thanks, with high commen- 
dation of the bishop for such his clemency, he entered 
the city, not staying till he came into the market- 
place, where, commanding one part of his army to 
keep their standing, he went with the residue into the 

* Holinshed's Hist, of Scotland. See also Buchanan, Hector 
Boethius, Hanmer, &c. 



26 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

church of our Lady, and after to that of St. Patrick, 
where, hearing the celebration of divine service, when 
the same was ended, he entered the castle, where his 
lodging was prepared."* He ultimately concluded 
peace with the Irish, and returned into Scotland. 



DONAT. 
[Sed. 1038. Ob. 1074.] 
Donat, or Dunan, was the first among the Ostmen 
who was Bishop of Dublin, and, by the aid of Sitric, 
the king, built the cathedral of the Holy Trinity, 
afterwards called Christ Church, in the heart of that 
city, about the year 1038; to whose religious frater- 
nity, according to the Liber Niger, said Sitric there- 
upon gave considerable landed possessions. Part of 
an epistolatory correspondence between this prelate 
and Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, is yet ex- 
tant ; the former having transmitted to the latter some 
written inquiries relative to baptism and the holy 
communion, and received a reply in reference thereto 
— " That it was expedient that all people, living and 
dying, should be fortified with the body and blood of 
the Lord ; but, if it should happen that a person bap- 
tized should die before he received the body and blood 
of Christ, God forbid that he should perish eternally ;"f 
and he cites several passages of Scripture to prove this 
position ; while, in reference to baptism, Lanfranc 
inculcates, " That, if an infant not baptized, (so he be 

* Holinshed's Hist, of Scotland. See also Buchanan, Hector Boe- 
thius, Hanmer, &c. 

t Wilkins 1 Cone. T. 1. p. 361. Ussher, in his Sylloge, erroneously 
refers this correspondence to 1081. 



. PATRICK. 27 

on the point of death,) should be baptized by a laic 
in defect of a priest, and die immediately after that, 
such infant should not be excluded from the body of 

the faithful . . It is necessary," he adds, " that the 

word of the Lord should be thus understood, as far as 
any one is capable of understanding a divine mystery, 
that he must not only eat of the flesh, and drink of 
the blood of Christ with the mouth of his body, but 
likewise with the love and affection of the heart, to 
wit, by loving, and with a pure conscience gratefully 
believing that Christ became man for our salvation, 
was crucified, rose again, ascended into heaven, and, 
by imitating his ways and entering into all he suf- 
fered, as far as his human nature suffered and 
divine grace deigned to endure, for this is to eat 
the flesh of Christ and drink his blood, truly and 
to salvation."* Donatus, it is to be remarked, is 
in this letter expressly styled Bishop of Dublin. He 
soon afterwards (on the 6th of May, 1074) died at an 
advanced age, and was buried in his own cathedral, 
in the upper part of the chancel, on the right hand 
side. 



PATRICK. 
[Succ. 1074, ob. 1084.] 

After the conquest of Dublin and the adjacent 
country, by Gotred, King of Man, as mentioned in 
the " History of the County of Dublin,'* Patrick, 

* Usser. Sylloge, p. 73, &c. 



2B BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

styled in the Annals of the Four Masters, Gilla Pa- 
tricianus, was, at the instance of Gotred, elected by 
the people of Dublin to succeed in this see, and was 
sent into England to receive consecration from Lan- 
franc, Archbishop of Canterbury, bearing with him the 
following recommendatory epistle: — "To Lanfranc, 
the venerable metropolitan of the Holy Church of 
Canterbury, the clergy and people of Dublin tender 
their bounden obedience. It is known unto your 
fatherhood, that the church of Dublin, the metro- 
polis of Ireland, is bereft of her pastor and desti- 
tute of her ruler. Wherefore we have elected a 
priest called Patrick, a person whom we thoroughly 
know ; one noble both by birth and morals, well 
imbued in apostolical and ecclesiastical discipline, in 
faith a Catholic, in the interpretation of the Scrip- 
tures wary, in the tenets of the church well versed, 
and whom we desire, without delay, to be ordained 
our bishop ; that, under God, he may rule over 
us orderly, and profit us, and that we, under his 
government, may exercise a spiritual warfare, with 
security. Because the integrity of the ruler is the 
safety of the subject; and, where safety of obedience 
is, there is the sound form of doctrine." The copy 
of this epistle is preserved in an ancient book, in 
the Cotton Library, which formerly belonged to the 
church of Canterbury, whence Ussher has published it 
in his Sylloge,* together with the following form of 
Patrick's profession of obedience on being so conse- 

* This letter is also the thirty-sixth among Lanfranc's letters, in 
D' Achery's edition of his works. 



PATRICK. 2Q 

crated in St. Paul's church : — " Whoever is appointed 
to rule over others, ought not to think it unworthy if 
he also be placed in subjection to others ; but ought 
rather to study, in all humility, to pay that obedience 
to his superiors which he expects, for God's sake, to 
receive from those that are subject to him. Where- 
fore, I, Patrick, having been elected bishop, to preside 
over Dublin, the metropolis of Ireland, do tender 
this instrument of my profession to you, most vene- 
rable father, Lanfranc, primate of the Britains, (Bri- 
tanniarum, i. e. England and Scotland,) and Arch- 
bishop of the holy church of Canterbury, and do 
promise that I will obey you and your successors, in 
all things which appertain to the Christian religion." 
The copies of the letters which Lanfranc sent by 
this bishop, to be delivered to the said Gotred, and to 
Turlough O'Brien, King of Ireland, are likewise 
preserved in Cardinal Baronius's Annals ; while it is 
to be observed, that Lanfranc, not having sufficient 
experience in Irish affairs, styles not only Turlough, 
King of Ireland, as he really was, but also gives Go- 
tred the same designation, who was only a ruler over 
Dublin and a small part of Leinster. The letters 
are as follow : — " Lanfranc, by the grace of God 
and not in respect to his own merits Archbishop of 
Canterbury, to Gotred, the renowned King of Ireland, 
greeting, with his benediction. We have honourably 
and with due respects received our venerable brother 
and fellow bishop, Patrick, (whom, most reverend 
son, your Excellency sent unto us for consecration,) 
and have invested him in the sacred function with all 






30 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

due ceremonies, and the co-operating grace of the 
Holy Ghost, according to canonical institution, and 
have remitted him to his proper see, with our letters 
testimonial, pursuant to the practice of our predeces- 
sors. And, although he has related to us many good 
and commendable things concerning your glory, yet 
we think it not amiss to enforce your noble designs 
by our exhortations ; for, as the fire is increased by 
the blowing of the wind, and shines more bright, so 
true virtue is improved and increased by well-merited 
praises. We therefore entreat you, in such manner as 
becomes a precious son of the Church to be intreated, 
that you will, with all sincerity of mind, preserve un- 
defined the true faith delivered by God and his holy 
apostles and the orthodox fathers ; that you will 
exhibit to the world such good works as are agreeable 
to the faith, according to the extent of your abilities, 
and shew your greatness severe to the proud but 
affable to the humble. It is reported, that within 
your dominions there are men, who take to themselves 
wives too near a-kin by consanguinity or affinity; 
others, who forsake at pleasure such as are lawfully 
joined to them in holy matrimony ; and some, who 
give their wives to others, and receive the wives of 
others in return by an abominable intercourse. These 
and other, if there are any other, enormities, you 
should order to be corrected, for God's sake and the 
good of your own soul, in the country of your do- 
minion. You are to carry yourself, by the assistance 
of God, towards your subjects in such manner, that 
they, who are affected by virtue, may love virtue the 



PATRICK. 31 

more, and such, as are wickedly disposed, may be 
restrained in the exercise of their vicious courses. 
For doing this you shall reign the longer on earth, 
in the enjoyment of temporal felicity, and, after this 
life, shall pass to a celestial kingdom, there to reign 
without end. I should have written to you more at 
large, but that you have with you the aforesaid pre- 
late, educated from his boyhood in monastic institu- 
tions, eminently instructed in the knowledge of divine 
learning, and (as far as it has come to our know- 
ledge) well graced with the ornaments of good works ; 
if you will attentively hearken unto him, (as he shall 
frequently speak to you concerning your soul,) hear- 
ing him to obey him as a spiritual father, in such 
things as appertain to God, doing as he declares to 
yon, and treasuring his words in your breast ; we then 
hope that by the mercy of God, neither yourself will 
perniciously go astray, nor permit your subjects to 
abide long in the obstinacy of wicked actions. The 
omnipotent Lord fortify you with the arm of virtue 
against the enemies of your soul and body, and, after 
a long life in this world, happily bring you to that 
which hath no end." 

The archbishop's letter to King Turlough, runs 
thus : — " Lanfranc, a sinner, and unworthy archbishop 
of the holy Church of Canterbury, to Turlough, 
the mighty king of Ireland, a blessing with our 
greeting and prayers. God bestoweth no greater 
mercies on earth, than when he promoteth to the 
government of souls or bodies, such as affect peace 
and work justice ; and especially when he committeth 



32 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

the kingdoms of the world to good kings. For hence 
peace arises, discord is extinguished, and, that I may 
sum up all in a word, the observance of Christian 
religion is established ; which blessing every prudent 
observer perceives to have been divinely conferred on 
the people of Ireland, when the omnipotent Lord 
granted unto your superiority the right of kingly 
power over that land. For our brother and fellow 
bishop, Patrick, hath declared so many, and such 
good and great things of your humility towards good 
men, of your rigorous severity against the wicked, 
and of your well disposed justice and equity towards 
all mankind, that, although we never saw you, yet we 
love you as if we had seen you ; and we desire to 
give you wholesome council, and to serve you as sin- 
cerely, as if you were seen by and well known unto 
us. But, amongst many things which please us, some 
things have been related unto us wherewith we are 
displeased, (viz.) that in your kingdom any one at 
pleasure relinquishes his lawful wife, without any 
canonical cause intervening, and rashly joins himself 
by a marital, or rather an adulterous law, with one 
nearly a-kin to himself, or to his deserted wife, or 
with another by similar depravity deserted by her 
husband ; that bishops are consecrated by one bishop 
only ; that infants are baptized without consecrated 
oil ; and that holy orders are conferred by bishops for 
money. There is no man so meanly versed in holy 
writ, but knows that all these things, and other the 
like, if any, are done contrary to evangelical and 
apostolical authority, against the prohibition of the 



PATRICK. 33 

holy canons, and against the institutions of all the 
orthodox fathers who have gone before us. Which 
things, by as much as they are abhorred in the sight 
of God and his saints, so much the more severely are 
they to be prohibited by your command without delay, 
and being prohibited, if they be not corrected, you 
are to punish them with the strictest severity of your 
terror. For you cannot offer to God a greater or 
more acceptable present, than to study to govern 
divine and human things by proper laws. Wherefore, 
as always mindful of the divine judgment, wherein 
you are to render an account to God of the kingdom 
committed to you, command all bishops and religious 
men to convene together, and in their holy confe- 
rence be you present with your nobles, to extermi- 
nate from your kingdom these wicked customs, and 
all others which are condemned by the laws of reli- 
gion : so that, when the King of kings and Lord of 
lords shall see your royal majesty subject in all things 
i to his precepts, and favourable to his faithful people 
out of fear and love for him, and possessed with zeal 
against the enemies of the true religion, he may pro- 
pitiously hear your faithful subjects crying unto him, 
astound your enemies, and grant to you in this world 
a firm peace, and in the world to come eternal life." 
Although it may be observed that Lanfranc, when 
deprecating the abuses alleged in the latter letter, 
does not speak in any tone of authority, nor issue any 
orders, as a metropolitan, to the Irish bishops and 
clergy, but only recommends their prince to convene 
them, and facilitate the exercise of their power of 

D 



34 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

correction for the good of his own soul, and although 
the letter to Gotred is also but a pious exhortation, 
yet the fact of this and subsequent instances of the 
interference of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 
consecration of Irish bishops, requires here, as on 
its earliest undoubted occurrence, some especial ex- 
planation, reminding the ordinary reader, as it may be 
scarcely necessary to do, that Lanfranc himself de- 
rived his pall from Rome. During the long period 
of Danish tyranny in Ireland, and while frequent in- 
tercourse with the Pontiff was impracticable, the 
metropolitan of Armagh seems to have been more 
particularly respected as his vicar, and a paramount 
ecclesiastical power was acknowledged as consequen- 
tial by all the Christians of Ireland. The Danes, 
however, of the sea-ports did not deem it politic, nor 
would they submit to have their bishops derived from 
such a sanction, and, as they always disdained to attri- 
bute their conversion to the Irish, but rather to the 
Anglo-Saxons, and further considered William the 
Conqueror and his Normans, who were then masters 
of England, their countrymen, they naturally looked 
in such a state of things to the English primate for 
the consecration of their bishops, and, accordingly, 
the practice commenced with this prelate's consecra- 
tion. His successor, Donatus O'Hanly, succeeded 
by similar authority in 1085, as did Samuel, the ne- 
phew of Donatus, on his decease. Eadmer, the friend 
and historian of Archbishop Anselm, with more policy 
than veracity, records the latter appointment as having 
been "juxta morem antiquum," as indeed Lanfranc I 



DONAT 5 HANLY. 35 

would assume at the higher period of his prelacy, in 
his aforesaid letter to Gotred. In 1097 5 the same 
feeling threw the nomination of a Bishop of Water- 
ford, Malchus, into Anselm's jurisdiction ; and, in 
letters from Anselm as well to the before-mentioned 
Samuel as to this Malchus, further claims to metro- 
politan jurisdiction are insinuated and acted upon. 
Indeed, the whole spirit, that induced these nomi- 
nations, is clearly evinced by a letter hereafter more 
particularly alluded to, from the people of Dub- 
lin to Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury, about the 
year 1121, wherein they avow the jealousy they had 
incurred from the Irish bishops, and particularly from 
the " bishop who dwells at Armagh," by reason of 
not submitting to their ordination. 

Patrick, having been in this spirit and under these 
auspices elected and consecrated, governed the see 
about ten years, when, in a voyage to England, whi- 
ther he was sent by King Turlough on business to 
Lanfranc, he perished by shipwreck, on the 10th of 
October, 1084. 



DONAT HANLY. 
[Succ. 1085, Ob. 1095.] 

Donat O'Haingly or O'Hanly, having spent some 
time in the study of useful learning in Ireland, passed 
into England and became a Benedictine monk at 
Canterbury. Returning to the former country, he 
-was elected by King Turlough and the clergy and 
oeople of Dublin, with the approbation of some Irish 

d 2 



36 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

bishops to the see of Dublin, and, on their represen- 
tion, was consecrated in 1085 by Archbishop Lan- 
franc, to whom he made the following profession of 
obedience : — " I Donat, bishop of the church of Dub- 
lin in Ireland, do promise canonical obedience to you, 
Lanfranc, Archbishop of the holy church of Canter- 
bury, and to your successors." The epistle, which 
King Turlough sent to Lanfranc in his favour, is 
stated by Ware in the following words : — " Turlough, 
King of Ireland, to the Most Rev. Father in God, 
Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, greeting, — We, 
Turlough and the clergy of Dublin, being bereaved 
of our good and pious pastor, Patrick, are grieved in 
a double sense, first, for his sad misfortune, being 
swallowed up in the deep ; secondly, for the loss of 
his wholesome doctrine, with which he was wont to 
feed our souls. Had he safely arrived, you would 
have had an account how I have followed your fa- 
therly instructions, which you recommended to me 
by our late deceased father. But this Donat, who we 
desire may be consecrated by your fatherhood and 
the rest of the holy prelates belonging to your holy 
see, will inform you further. Grace, peace, and hap- 
piness attend on you and your followers, Amen." 

This bishop, it appears, was a particular favourite 
with Lanfranc, who frequently entertained him in his 
palace, and gave him sundry presents, in particular 
some books and church ornaments for his cathedral of 
the Holy Trinity. He died on the 23rd of Novem- 
ber, in the year 1095, of a plague, the prevalence of 
which in that year is recorded in the Annals of In- 






SAMUEL g'hANLY. 37 

nisfallen, and left behind him among his countrymen a 
high reputation for industry, learning, and sagacity.* 



SAMUEL o'HANLY. 
[Succ. 1095, Ob. 1121.] 

Samuel O'Hanly, nephew to the deceased Donat, 
and a Benedictine monk as his uncle had been, suc- 
ceeded to the see. Eadmerf thus alludes to his con- 
secration : — " In the year 1095 one Samuel, a native 
of Ireland, and a monk of the abbey of St. Alban's,J 
came to Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. He, 
upon the death of Donat, late bishop of the city of 
Dublin, of blessed memory,was, by Murtough O'Brien, 
King of Ireland, and the clergy and people, elected 
bishop of that city, and, according to ancient custom, 
was by common suffrage recommended to Anselm 
for consecration ; Anselm approved the election and 
granted their petition. He honourably entertained 
the man in his house for a time, and diligently in- 
structed him how to behave himself in the house of 
God ; then taking from him a profession of his 
canonical obedience, he consecrated him bishop in 
the octave of Easter following, and four of his suf- 
' fragan bishops ministered to him during the cere- 
i mony. This new prelate, strengthened by the bene- 
■ diction of so great a prince, and with letters testimonial 



; __ 



* Ware's Bishops, (Harris's Ed.) p. 309. 

t Hist. Nov. L. 2. ad ami. 

X It is remarkable that there are to this day numerous monuments 
in the monastery of St. Alban's, commemorating members of the 
"Hundley" family. 



38 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 

written by the said Anselm to the king, people, and 
clergy of Ireland, as vouchers of his consecration, 
returned to his own country with joy, and was ho- 
nourably received into his see according to the usage 
of the land." The narrative is evidently the pro- 
duction of one, anxious to promote the interest and 
power of Anselm, and, while it seeks to suggest an 
" ancient custom" for such consecrations, it is possi- 
bly equally sycophantic in the assertion of King 
Murtough's recommendation of Samuel, which might, 
however, be given, like that of his royal predecessor 
Turlough, in deference to the Ostmen citizens of 
Dublin. 

Samuel's profession, as preserved in Ussher's Syl- 
loge, was in these terms, " I Samuel, chosen for the 
government of the church of Dublin, which is situ- 
ated in Ireland, and to be consecrated bishop by the 
reverend father Anselm, Archbishop of the holy 
church of Canterbury, and primate of all Britain, do 
promise that I will observe canonical obedience in all 
things to thee and all thy successors." It may be in- 
teresting to remark, that the consecration of this 
bishop took place in the cathedral of Winchester, 
when it was in all the freshness of its beauty, being 
then but two years completed, and within five years 
of the period when it was to receive the corse of the 
royal Rufus. 

Samuel, soon after his return to Ireland, expelled 
some monks from the cathedral of the Holy Trinity, 
stripped that church of the books and ornaments which 
Lanfranc had bestowed on it, as before observed, and 
commanded the cross to be carried before himself; in 



SAMUEL O HANLY. 39 

consequence of which, Anselm wrote a letter to him, 
also preserved in Ussher's Si/IIoge, and of which the 
following is a translation : " Anselm, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, &c, to his venerable brother Samuel, 
Bishop of Dublin, greeting, — Complaint hath been 
made unto us, that you dispose of and alienate to 
strangers those books, vestments, and other ornaments 
of the church, which Archbishop Lanfranc bestowed 
on your uncle, Bishop Donat, to the use of the 
church over which you preside. If this be true, 
I much wonder at it, for these ornaments were 
not given to your uncle but to the church, as 
the brothers and sons of the church of Canterbury 
do attest. Therefore, I admonish and command 
you, that, if any of the aforesaid things be dis- 
posed of out of the church, you immediately cause 
them to be restored to it. I have, likewise, heard 
that you have expelled and dispersed several of 
the monks appointed to serve in the said church, 
and that, though they are willing to return, you will 
not receive them back. If this be so, it is very un- 
becoming in you, whose duty it is rather to collect 
the scattered, than to scatter those who are collected. 

! Wherefore, I command you, if any have been ex- 
pelled and are willing to return and continue in the 
service of God, under obedience, that you receive 
them, and studiously employ your paternal affection 

[ for their preservation, unless, which God forbid, they 
give cause to obstruct their own restoration. I have, 

[ also, heard that you cause your cross to be carried 



40 BISHOPS OF DUBLIK". 

erect before you, in the way; if this be true, I forbid 
it for the future, because it belongs to none but an 
archbishop, confirmed by the grant of the pall from 
the Roman Pontiff. Neither does it become you to 
shew yourself reprehensible to men, by presuming 
on such an unusual thing : farewell."* Anselm also 
wrote to Malchus Bishop of Waterford a letter, pre- 
served in the Sylloge, in which he repeats the above 
causes of complaint, adds, that he ordered the people 
of Dublin to prevent the removal of the articles be- 
longing to the church, and desires him to expostulate 
viva voce with Samuel, and advise him to obey the 
monitory letter, which he enclosed to Malchus with 
the object of a personal delivery. It does not appear 
how far these charges of avarice and sacrilegious 
peculation were justified, or what effect the remon- 
strance accomplished, and it is only known that, ac- 
cording to the best authorities, Bishop Samuel died 
on the 4th of July, in the year 1121, although the 
Annals of St. Mary's Abbey, and some ancient rolls 
in Lambeth, postpone this event to the following 
year, and those of Multifernan to 1123.f 

Immediately on his decease, there is some evi- 
dence that Cclsus, Bishop of Armagh, was entreated 
to preside over this see, and Doctor Lanigan, with 
an acu teness that makes his lightest conjectures well 
deserving of notice, in any theological question con- 
nected with the period of which he wrote, considers 
it probable, thai, without intending to be a pluralist, 

* CJsser. Syll. p. 99. f Harris's Ware's Bishops, p. 310. 



GREGORY. 41 

he wished to draw away this see from the jurisdiction 
of the prelate of Canterbury, and that his views of 
administering the affairs of the diocese, until a better 
arrangement could be effected, were favoured by 
a great part of its clergy and people. The Irish 
bishops, and particularly Celsus, must have considered 
it anomalous, that the diocese of Dublin should be 
separated from the Irish hierarchy, after Waterford 
and Limerick, the only other sees which had for simi- 
lar reasons sought consecration of their prelates in 
England, had been, by a decree of the synod of Rath- 
breasil, placed under the Archbishop of Cashel. The 
opinion is considerably strengthened by the terms of 
the recommendation which the Danish party for- 
warded with Gregory to Canterbury, as stated in the 
ensuing paragraph. No evidence, however, has been 
discovered of Celsus having actually exercised any of 
the functions of Bishop of Dublin. 



GREGORY. 
[Succ. 1121. Ob. 1161.] 

This prelate, having been elected Bishop of Dub- 
lin, repaired to England to receive a similar consecra- 
tion with that of his immediate predecessors from the 
Archbishop of Canterbury ; and, besides letters from 
the king in his favour, he carried also with him other 
recommendations from the clergy and people of Dub- 
lin, in which they emphatically urged, that they had 
incurred much jealousy from the bishops of Ireland, 
and especially from the prelate who lived at Armagh, 



42 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

because they would not obey the order of the said 
bishops, but testified their wish to live under the juris- 
diction of Canterbury.* In pursuance of these testi- 
monials Gregory received his first orders from Roger 
Bishop of Salisbury, on the 24th of September, 1121; 
and on the 2nd of October following, having made 
the customary profession of obedience, was consecrated 
Bishop of Dublin, at Lambeth, by Ralph Archbishop 
of Canterbury, assisted by the prelates Richard of 
London, the said Roger of Salisbury, Robert of Lin- 
coln, Everard of Norwich, and David of Bangor. The 
form of his profession is published by Archbishop 
Ussher, and is in similar terms with that of his prede- 
cessors. On the 24th of the said month of October 
he assisted, together with Theulph Bishop of Worces- 
ter, Richard Bishop of Hereford, and Urban Bishop 
of Glamorgan, in consecrating the great church of 
Tewkesbury, then recently raised to the dignity of 
an abbey. 

After he had presided thirty-one years over his 
see, the archiepiscopal dignity was conferred upon him 
at the Council of Kells,t the causes and acts of which 
assembly require here more especial notice. 

It is scarcely necessary perhaps to suggest, that, 
from the period of the Danish invasion, the march of 
religion and morality was cruelly checked in Ireland. 
Christianity, up to that era, which may be defined as 
the commencement of the ninth century, had, as 
Cambrensis admits, remained there untainted and un- 



* Vide Ussher's Sylloge, p. 101. 
t Harris's Ware's Bishops, p. 31 1. 



GREGORY. 43 

shaken, (" illibata et inconcussa ;"-) but thenceforward 
the Christian resident priesthood could only preserve 
their lives in the intricacy of woods, and bogs, and 
caverns ; and, while the expatriated portion of the 
clergy were leading the most successful and glorious 
missions in foreign countries, there is much reason to 
believe that deviations, both in discipline and morality, 
were the result of this breaking up of the ecclesiasti- 
cal communities in Ireland. In vain, at the moment 
of deepest moral degradation, did Brian Boroimhe 
apply his utmost exertions to recal his erring subjects, 
and efface from their manners and habits those taints 
with which they had been imbued ; not even the par- 
tial subsequent conversion of the Danes could effectu- 
ate these objects. If the picture drawn by the pen of 
St. Bernard were deemed accurate to the whole ex- 
tent, the degeneracy in his day, or rather in those 
days of St. Malachy of which he wrote, was indeed 
deplorable ; # and Adrian's Bull to Henry the Second 
intimates as much, at a later period, where he incites 
the royal missionary to subdue the Irish to the laws, 
and to extirpate from amongst them the nurseries of 
vice. The Archbishop of Canterbury had, during 
nearly a century, as has been shewn, assumed to exer- 
cise a metropolitan jurisdiction in appointing and 
ordaining bishops for the Danish settlements, compre- 
hending the chief cities of Ireland, while the prelates 
of those parts of the country, which were possessed by 
the natives, appear, in the difficulty of intercourse 

* Vita Malach. e. 6. 



44 BISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

thence with Rome, and the decided laxity of disci- 
pline, to have assumed to consecrate each other. This 
usage, however it might have been tolerated for a 
time from necessity, was not calculated to uphold 
the desired unity of Roman Catholic doctrine and 
discipline, and, in point of fact, mainly led to some 
of the aberrations alluded to. It was now, therefore, 
deemed advisable at the Court of Rome, that Ireland 
should be divided into ecclesiastical provinces, and 
archbishops assigned over them, by whom the suffra- 
gans might be thenceforth appointed. Accordingly 
it was proposed, in 1151, that Cardinal Paparo should 
visit Ireland for the attainment of this object; and a 
license of safe conduct was applied for from the King 
of England, but refused by him, unless the ecclesiastic 
would pledge his faith, that the expedition should 
operate no prejudice to the English nation. In 1 1 52, 
however, the same missionary, having first debarked 
at Tinmouth, in Northumberland, and been well re- 
ceived by the Bishop of Durham, proceeded thence 
to Ireland, under conduct from the King of Scot- 
land. 

Immediately on his arrival at the place of his des- 
tination he convened a synod, at which he and Chris- 
tian O' Conor, Bishop of Lismore, presided as the 
Pope's legates. It was held in March at the ancient 
town of Kells, according to the most approved autho- 
rities, though others state Drogheda, and some Melle- 
font, to have been the place of meeting. The assem- 
blage on the occasion comprised the chief personages 
of Ireland—bishops, abbots, princes, and chiefs. Of 



GREGORY. 45 

the first order there were no less than twenty-three 
present, viz., Christian O'Conor, of Lismore ; Gela- 
sius Mac Leig, of Armagh ; Donatus O'Lonergan, 
of Cashel ; Hugh O'Heyne, of Tuam ; Gregory, of 
Dublin ; Gilda na Naomh, of Glendalough ; Dungan 
O'Cellaic, of Leighlin ; Tostius, (an Ostman,) of 
Water ford; Daniel O'Fogarty, of Ossory ; Fion Mac 
Tiernan, of Kildare ; Gillah an Comdeh O'Hard- 
moill, of Emly ; Gilla Hugh O'Heyne, of Cork; 
Maolbrenan O'Ronan, of Kerry, (i. e. Ardfert;) 
Turgesius, (also an Ostman,) of Limerick ; Murtough 
O'Maolidher, of Clonmacnois ; Maolissa O'Con- 
naghten, of East Connaught ; Maolruan O'Ruadan, of 
Luigne, (i. e. Achonry ;) Magrath O'Moran, of Con- 
macne, (Ardagh ;) Ethrie O'Meadachain, of Clonard; 
Toole O'Connaghten, of Jobh Bruin, (Enachdune;) 
Murdoch O'Coffy, of Kinel-Eogan, (Derry;) Maol- 
patrick O'Banon, of Dailnarugh, (Connor;) andMa- 
lachy ara Cleririchuir, of Ullagh, (Down.) There 
were present, besides these prelates, according to the 
Annals of the Four Masters, three thousand other 
ecclesiastics. By the decision of this council the Irish 
bishoprics were reduced to a fewer number, and four 
archbishops were established, to whom the sacred palls 
were given. Gelasius was appointed to preside over 
the province of Armagh, Donatus assigned to that of 
Cashel, Edanus to Tuam, and Gregory was elevated 
from bishop of the see to be Archbishop of the pro- 
vince of Dublin ; while to each a certain number of 
suffragan bishops was subjected. Those, placed under 
the government of Gregory and his successors, were 



46 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Glendalough, Ferns, Leighlin, Ossory, and Kildare. 
Besides the delivery of the palls, other matters of high 
ecclesiastical importance were transacted on this occa- 
sion. A decree was passed against simony, a crime 
which was in those times bat too prevalent through- 
out the Christian world ; usury also was condemned ; 
marriages within the canonical degrees, which had be- 
come too prevalent in this country, were expressly 
prohibited ;* and the cardinal, in virtue of his apos- 
tolical authority, directed that tithes should be paid. 
On this point, however, he was very badly obeyed, 
and tithes were, if at all, very little exacted in Ire- 
land, until after the establishment of English power. 
On the breaking up of the synod Paparo immediately 
returned to Rome. 

Although no decrees were deemed necessary to 

* Ceillier, v. xxi. p. 691. Simon Dunelm. Hist. ad. ann. Mr. Moore 
has perhaps somewhat hastily in his History of Ireland, v. ii. p. 191, 
stated this canon as prohibitory of the marriages of the clergy, and has 
been very severe upon Doctor Lanigan, for what he terms an unworthy 
suppression of the enactment ; but the truth is, that there is no autho- 
rity whatsoever to support the statement ; the only passages in Irish 
ecclesiastical history that can be cited, as giving colour to such mar- 
riages at the time, refer to the diocese of Armagh alone, and these 
apply more to the laymen who usurped that see as their inheritance for 
five or six generations, and whom Mr. Moore recognises as such in the 
same volume, pp. 65, 171, 304, and 341. See also St. Bernard's Life 
of Malachy, c. 7. The Irish Annals, and particularly those of the Four 
Masters, repudiate any such general imputation : while the reluc- 
tant testimony of Cambrensis to the purity of the native priesthood, 
and yet more the remarkable avowal in the thirteenth canon of Arch- 
bishop Comyn's council of 1186, that the clergy of Ireland were always 
remarkable for their chastity, are completely subversive of the proba- 
bility of such a canon. 



GREGORY. 47 

be passed on this occasion, in reference to the doc- 
trines or the morality of the people much less of the 
clergy, King Henry the Second was, on his accession 
to the throne in two years afterwards, too deeply inte- 
rested in reiterating and magnifying at Rome such 
calumnious accounts of Ireland, as would impress the 
pontiff with the importance and utility of his medi- 
tated invasion of that country. Fortunately for his 
wishes an Englishman, Adrian the Fourth, had been 
advanced to that high office, about the very same time 
that he had himself attained his kingdom. To him, 
therefore, did Henry make his earliest application on 
the subject of Ireland, communicating the necessity 
and motives of his design through the medium of 
John of Salisbury, then chaplain to Theobald Arch^ 
bishop of Canterbury. The wily negotiator was well 
selected for the office : he besought the Pope's per- 
mission for his master to take possession of Ireland, 
purely for the extension of morality and religion. He 
made his suit with the earnestness of a Christian mi- 
nister ;* he implored it, as if only actuated by a ten- 
der commiseration for the souls of the poor deluded 
Irish ; he persevered — he succeeded — and the English 
prince was, like another Joshua, commissioned " to 
possess the land" for the glory of God and salvation 
of its people. 

It is by many considered incredible that the Pope 
could have listened to, much less have so thoroughly 
adopted these suggestions, as to recite them to a cer- 



* John Sarisb. Metalog. L. 4. c. 42. 



48 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

tain extent in the commencement of his Bull ; more 
especially when he knew, that but three years before 
the palls had been sent to Ireland, and conferred upon 
natives of the highest sanctity and respect, and in a 
synod crowded with Irish bishops and ecclesiastics of 
the most unblemished character. Adrian might have 
been, however, the more disposed to credit these in- 
terested representations, as it appears that in his 
youth he had made a painful pilgrimage into Norway, 
where, in the progress of conversion, he possibly heard 
equally interested misrepresentations of the Irish, from 
a people who had for ages been their tyrants and 
oppressors. The love of England, his native country, 
was likely also to have deeply biased his inclinations, 
and such a motive was consequently assigned by 
Matthew of Westminster, strongly asserted by Donald 
O'Neill and the Irish chieftains in their letters to 
Pope John the Twenty-second, and subsequently sug- 
gested and accredited in a speech of Cardinal Pole 
in A.D. 1554.* But more than all, it is most rea- 
sonable to infer that Adrian consented to the ap- 
pointment, politically concluding that Henry was the 
best qualified to establish the desired conformity with 
Roman discipline. He knew that Ireland, by being 
subjected in a temporal sense to England, would be 
more spiritually reduced to the authority of the 
Church, while Henry on his part covenanted to be a 
collector of its rents and dues for the apostolic see. 
With such impressions and motives, Pope Adrian 

* See Usser. Syll. n. to Adrian's Bull. 



GREGORY. 49 

transmitted, through the aforesaid John of Salisbury, 
as an investiture of dominion over Ireland, a ring, 
which John himself states was preserved in the state 
muniments in his day, and with it an official Bull, of 
whose existence also, as of record in Winchester, 
Giraldus is equally certain. In this Bull, after duly 
commending Henry's motives as originating in the 
zeal of faith and love of Christianity, and directed 
for the extension of the supremacy of Rome, the 
jurisdiction of its Church over an unlearned and bar- 
barous people, and the extirpation of the weeds of 
vice from the field of the Lord ; and, after auguring 
the success of their execution from the purity of their 
conception, and especially from the submission made 
to and sanction sought from Rome, the Pontiff pro- 
ceeds to recite his own title to Ireland, as founded 
on a vaunted grant of all the islands of the Christian 
world from the Emperor Constantine to the succes- 
sors of St. Peter, and again reverts to Henry's motives 
as having been signified to him to be for subjecting 
the Irish to laws, extirpating vice, collecting Peter's 
pence, and preserving the Church rights in the island ; 
he, therefore, gives his assent to the pious and praise- 
worthy desire of the English king, and agrees that 
for such purposes he should enter the island, and do 
whatever might best tend to the honour of God and 
safety of that land ; expressing at the same time a 
hope, that the people of the country would receive 
him with honour, and respect him as their lord ; and 
he concludes with a still more impressive, and an un- 
questionably meritorious line of instruction, which 

E 



50 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

had Henry adopted, had his soldiery " sowed righ- 
teousness and reaped in mercy," the land might 
rejoice in the invasion that extinguished her disas- 
trous constitution. " If then," he adds, " you are 
minded to effectuate your purpose, make it your 
study to inform that nation with good precepts, and 
do this as w r ell by your own exertions, as by those 
of whomsoever you may depute as fitted for such a 
design by their doctrine, conversation, and life ; so 
that the Church may be glorified thereby, and the 
religion of Christ planted and increased, and what- 
ever pertains to the honour of God and safety of 
souls may be so perfected, as that you will deserve to 
obtain from that God an accumulation of eternal re- 
wards, and must succeed in acquiring on earth a 
glorious fame for ages." 

Thus it was that Adrian countenanced the transfer 
of a kingdom, which in no manner belonged to him, 
to a prince who had no manner of right to it ; an ex- 
ercise of authority so unwarranted in the abstract, 
that a host of historians have ventured at once to im- 
pugn the authenticity of the instrument altogether, 
and such a conclusion has been too hastily considered 
as necessary for the honour of the country and of the 
Pope. The leading objections urged against the 
document, are embodied in Lynch 's Cambrensis 
Eversus, c. 22, but their enumeration, or that of the 
evidences which establish the authenticity of the Bull, 
appears irrelevant in the present work. 

The instrument was not fated to be acted upon 
during the life of Archbishop Gregory, who died on 



LAURENCE o'tOOLE, 51 

the 8th of October, in the year 1161, having filled 
the see for forty years. The Chronicle of All Saints 
characterizes him as " a wise man, and one well 
skilled in languages," but erroneously assigns his 
death to the year 1162. 

LAURENCE o'tOOLE. 
[Succ. 1162, Ob. 1180.] 

Laurence O' Toole, the truly illustrious indivi- 
dual who succeeded to this high preferment, was the 
youngest son of the hereditary lord or petty prince 
of the territory of Imaile, the head of one of the septs 
eligible to the kingdom of Leinster, and which main- 
tained the privilege of electing the bishops and abbots 
of Glendalough, even for centuries after that see was 
de jure united to that of Dublin. His father's princi- 
pality was situated in the district of Wicklow, to which 
he was also attached in the maternal line, his mother 
having been of the O' Byrnes, a family equally re- 
vered in the memory of their countrymen. In the 
depth of the romantic " valley of the two lakes," 
which gave name to the see of Glendalough, and 
where the ruins of its little city and cathedral are 
still traceable, there was, at this period, one of those 
schools, for which Ireland was justly celebrated, and 
within its walls the pious Laurence imbibed the rudi- 
ments of his education, and the principles of his reli- 
gion. At the early age of ten, his acquirements 
elevated him considerably above the ordinary class of 
his contemporaries, and the infant ardour of his 

e 2 



52 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

patriotism so manifested itself, that when at that 
period his father participated in the oppressive hosti- 
lities, with which Dermot Mac Murrough visited the 
most worthy of the chieftains of Leinster, the heart- 
less tyrant could only be induced to avert the worst 
inflictions of his cruel power, on receiving as a hos- 
tage from the father's hands the son of his heart and 
hopes. 

No sooner had Dermot possessed himself of this 
already celebrated boy, than he subjected him to the 
first lessons of the persecution he was fated to endure, 
and with a fiendish cruelty, in thorough consistence 
with the character which even his Welch allies after- 
wards attributed to him, he is said to have confined 
his victim in a barren, unsheltered spot, and only 
allowed him such a quality and quantity of food as 
might preserve an existence for tyranny to excru- 
ciate. The distracted parent, when he heard of his 
son's sufferings, knowing that entreaty would be re- 
sponded with mockery and increased barbarity, by 
some successful sally from his mountain holds, cap- 
tured twelve of Mac Murrough's soldiers, whom he 
threatened instantly to immolate, unless his son was 
restored to his home. The threat was effective, and 
in the valley of Glendalough Laurence was once 
more received in a father's embrace. The secluded 
and melancholy appearance of this scene, surrounded 
as it is by almost perpendicular mountains on all sides 
but the east, where alone it opens like a vast temple 
of nature to the rising day, early marked it as the 
more peculiar retreat of holiness, and must have 



LAURENCE o'TOOLE. 53 

greatly influenced the determination of the redeemed 
boy, who, thereupon, again applied himself to his 
studies, in the place where his rudiments were im- 
bibed, and, ultimately resigning the prospects of his 
birth and inheritance, devoted his great talents to the 
service of religion, and exhibited such eminent proofs 
of his knowledge, devotion, purity, and high morality, 
that, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, at the impor- 
tunity of the clergy and people of the district, he was 
advanced to preside over that abbey, whose ruins still 
affect the observer with inexpressible reverence, and, 
if not forming the most imposing feature at Glenda- 
lough, at least powerfully deepen its interest. His 
charity to the poor at this time is much commemo- 
rated, especially during a period of remarkable scar- 
city, which miserably afflicted that part of the country 
during four successive years ; nor is it to be over- 
looked, that by the rectitude of his conduct through- 
out this interval of his life, he confounded the efforts 
of calumny, and, by the firm but merciful superin- 
tendance of the district under his charge, converted 
it from a wicked waste to moral cultivation. The 
result was to himself as might be expected; and when 
the bishop of the see, Gilda na Naomh, died, Lau- 
rence was at once selected by a grateful people to fill 
the vacant dignity. He, however, utterly declined 
this honour, wisely and prudently excusing himself by 
reason of the fewness of his years. Providence re- 
served him for a more exalted and useful sphere of 
action ; and, on the death of Gregory, Archbishop 
of Dublin, which soon afterwards occurred, he was 



54 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

elected the successor ; a promotion which he would 
also have declined, but was ultimately induced to ac- 
cept, by earnest representations of the good he might 
thus effectuate. He was, accordingly, consecrated in 
Christ Church, Dublin, in the year 1162, by Gela- 
sius. Archbishop of Armagh, assisted by many bi- 
shops, the people offering up the thanksgivings of 
their hearts ; and, from that period the custom of 
sending the bishops of the Irish cities which the 
Danes had occupied, to Canterbury for consecration, 
was utterly discontinued. 

In the following year, Archbishop O' Toole en- 
gaged the secular clergy of his cathedral of the Holy 
Trinity, to receive the rule of the regular canons of 
Aroasia, an abbev, which was founded in the diocese 
of Arras, about eighty years previously, and had 
acquired such a reputation for sanctity and exem- 
plary discipline, that it became the head, or mother 
church of a numerous congregation. The better 
to recommend this change, the archbishop himself 
assumed the habit of that order, which he thence- 
forth always wore under his pontifical attire, and 
equally submitted himself to their mortifications and 
rules of living. Although he studiously avoided 
all popular applause, yet his continued charity to the 
poor could not be concealed. He caused every day, 
sometimes sixty, sometimes forty paupers to be fed 
in his presence, besides many whom he otherwise 
relieved ; he entertained the rich with suitable splen- 
dour, yet, never himself tasted the luxuries of the 
table, and, as frequently as his duties would permit, 



LAURENCE o'tOQLE. 55 

retreated to the scene of his early sanctity, where in 
the cave, still shewn as the labour of St. Kevin's' 
self-inflictions, removed from human intercourse, he 
indulged himself in holy thinkings. 

In 1167 he assisted at the council which King 
Roderic convened at Athboy, and which, in the 
mixed grades of those who attended it, greatly re- 
sembled a Saxon Wittenagemote. " Thither," ac- 
cording to the Annals of the Four Masters, " came 
the comorb of Patrick; Catholicus O'Duffy, Arch- 
bishop of Connaught ; Laurence O' Toole, Arch- 
bishop of Leinster; Tiernan O'Rourke, Lord of 
Brefny ; Donough O' Carrol, Lord of Uriel, the son 
of the King of Ulad ; Dermod O'Melaghlin, King 
of Tara ; Raynal Mac Raynal, Lord of the Danes ; 
Donough O'Faolan, Chief of the Desies ; &c. The 
complement of the whole so collected was, 6000 
of Connaught, 4000 with O'Rourke, 2000 with 
O'Melaghlin 4000 with O' Carrol and the son of 
the King of Ulad, 2000 with Donough O'Faolan, and 
1000 with the Danes of Dublin." The political 
object of this assembly was, to obtain more indisputa- 
ble acknowledgments of the sovereignty of Roderic, 
and to calculate what aid and support he might ex- 
pect, in case of the then expected invasion of Dermot 
Mac Murrough's auxiliaries. The council did not, 
however, separate without passing many good ordi- 
nances, touching the privileges of churches and 
clergy, and the regulation of public morality, and 
religious discipline. Archbishop Laurence also pre- 



56 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

sided as legate at a clerical convocation, held at 
Clonfert in 1170, by commission from the Pope. 

Upon the first invasion of the Welch adventu- 
rers, he adhered firmly to the independence of his 
country, and encouraged the inhabitants of Dublin 
to a vigorous defence against the invaders; they, 
however, daunted by the martial appearance, and 
disciplined array of Strongbow's forces before their 
walls, entreated the prelate, rather to become the 
mediator of a peace ; to effectuate which, he passed 
out into the lines of the besiegers, but, while the 
terms of surrender were yet under discussion, 
Raymond le Gros, and Milo de Cogan, with a party 
of young and fiery spirits, scaled the walls, and at 
once possessed themselves of the city, with frightful 
carnage. The charity of Archbishop O' Toole was 
eminently exercised on this occasion. At the hazard 
of his life, he traversed the streets of the metropolis, 
protesting against the ruin he could not control ; 
snatching the panting bodies from the grasp of the 
invader, he administered to the dvin^ the last con- 
solations of religion, to the dead, the hasty service of 
a grave, and to the wants and wounds of the wretched 
survivors, all that their necessities could require, or 
his means afford. 

In 1 1 7 1 Hasculph, the Danish Governor of Dublin, 
whom the English had expelled from the city, arrived 
in its harbour to re-assert his rights, with thirty ships 
in his train, and a numerous force commanded by 
John Wood, from the Isle of Man and the islands of 



LAURENCE o'TOOLE. 57 

the North, and described in the Irish Annals as 
" well appointed, after the Danish manner, with bri- 
gandines, jacks and coats of mail, their shields, 
bucklers, and targets round and coloured red, and 
bound about with iron." Archbishop Laurence on 
this occasion, considering that much national good 
might result, from opposing the power of the new 
invaders by that of the old, became most zealous 
in his appeals to the native princes to promote 
Hasculph's project, and his devoted patriotism and 
the sanctity of his character gave great weight to 
his exhortations. The people rose in arms to his call, 
collected all their strength, surrounded Dublin by 
land while the Dane occupied the harbour, and 
threatened the hitherto victorious Strongbow with 
total annihilation. From the height of the citadel 
he beheld with alarm the allied natives, at last 
united in the defence of their country, and extend- 
ing their lines from sea to sea around him. Roderic 
was encamped at Castleknock, whence his army ex- 
tended to the ancient town of Finglas ; O'Rourke 
and the petty prince of Ulster mingled their forces 
along the strand of Clontarf ; the Lord of Hy Kin- 
selagh occupied the opposite shores of Dalkey; while 
the Chief of Thorn ond advanced so near as Kilmain- 
ham, to the walls of the metropolis ; and even 
Archbishop Laurence communicated the inspiration 
of his character to this cause, and gliding amidst the 
ranks of war, animated the several septs of his 
countrymen to the assertion of their common liber- 



58 AKCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

ties.* Within the city were, Earl Strongbow, 
Maurice Fitzgerald, Raymond le Gros, the Achilles 
of the invasion, Milo de Cogan, Richard de Cogan, and 
some other chosen chieftains ; but their scanty soldiery 
bore a fearful comparison in numbers with the host 
that were to oppose them ; and Strongbow, in the 
prudence of necessity, withheld them from any en- 
counter that might but reveal their weakness. It 
was the crisis of Ireland's destinies, but her monarch 
was not equal to the emergency. 

During two months, these warriors patiently 
endured the closest blockade, but after that interval, 
a privation of food, so grievous, that according to 
Regan, a measure of wheat was sold for a mark, and 
one of barley for half a mark, threatened the gar- 
rison with the most terrific species of death. In this 
emergency, rather than pine under the lingering 
infliction of famine, they loudly implored their com- 
manders to lead them against the enemy, and afford 
them at least the glorious consolation of dying on 
the field of battle. In aggravation of their de- 
spair, and the imminence of their fate, came fearful 
accounts of the state of Fitz Stephen and his follow- 
ers in Wexford. A council was thereupon held, 
and an ineffectual effort having been made, under 
its direction, to obtain favourable terms by negotia- 
tion, it was resolved, without further delay, to sally 
on the besiegers. The garrison was accordingly 
divided into three companies ; Raymond le Gros, 



* Cambr. Evers. p. 165. 



LAURENCE O TOOLE. 59 

with 200 knights, took the vanguard, Milo de 
Cogan, with as many more, kept the centre, and 
Strongbow, with Maurice Fitz Gerald, and 200 
knights and soldiers, composed the rear, sufficient 
numbers being left to guard and secure the city. 
Early on the following morning, when the natives 
were least expecting an assault, the appointed de- 
tachments impatiently sallied from the city, and 
falling on the wing of Roderic's army, completely 
broke down any opposition it was able to offer, and 
following up their advantage along the monarch's line, 
slew without mercy, even until the fall of night, when 
they returned to the city, wearied by their bloody vic- 
tory, but much enriched with spoils, and with what 
was then even more welcome, ample stores of pro- 
visions. Roderic himself narrowly escaped being 
taken prisoner. The native chieftains fled in every 
direction, and the allies from the isles took to sea 
without another effort. Hasculph himself, however, 
was taken prisoner as he was hurrying to his ship, 
and having, when brought before the English leader, 
expressed himself in terms deemed unbecoming, and 
certainly imprudent in a captive, was instantly ordered 
to execution. Milo de Cogan was thereupon re-in- 
stated in the government of Dublin, and Strongbow 
marched with his adherents to the relief of Fitz 
Stephen in Wexford. 

The political exertions of the archbishop were 
not, however, paralyzed by these unexpected discom- 
fitures. With unwearied zeal he still laboured to 
organize an effective opposition against Strongbow 



60 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

and his followers, but the arrival of King Henry the 
Second at Waterford, in the October following, with 
considerable forces, having given a new character to 
the invasion, and most of the leading men of Ireland 
having submitted to him, Laurence, together with 
the principal archbishops, bishops, and abbots of the 
country, repaired to that city, and, in obedience to 
the bull of Pope Adrian, then for the first time exhi- 
bited, respectively submitted themselves to him, the 
English king, as their temporal lord and ruler. In 
the Christmas following, Archbishop Laurence as- 
sisted at the synod convened at Cashel by the king's 
orders, wherein several canons were established for 
the prevention of marriages within certain degrees of 
kindred, the more solemn administration of baptism, 
the due payment of parochial tithes, the immunity of 
church lands and of the clergy from secular exac- 
tions, the distribution of the property of deceased 
persons according to their wishes solemnly avowed be- 
fore death, or an equitable division in case of no such 
avowal, the administration of the last rites to the 
dying, the regulation of burials, and the conformity 
of divine service in Ireland with that of the Church 
of England ; while it is very remarkable, that, not- 
withstanding the great reform which it was alleged 
the Irish nation required, not only were all the 
bishops and ecclesiastics, who were present on that 
occasion, natives, with the exception of three, Henry's 
immediate chaplain and advisers, but it was actually 
not deemed necessary to make any canons at this 
synod relative to religious doctrine, or even the more 






LAURENCE O'TOOLE. 61 

essential points of discipline ; and some of the decrees 
are evidently of a political rather than an ecclesias- 
tical tendency. 

About the year 1173, this prelate gave the amia- 
ble example, not only of Christian forgiveness, but 
yet more of that cordiality, with which persons most 
opposed in politics should concur in the cause of reli- 
gion and charity, and co-operating with Strongbow, 
Robert Fitz Stephen, and Raymond le Gros, under- 
took the enlargement of Christ Church ; and, accord- 
ingly, at their own charges, erected the choir, the 
steeple, and two chapels, one dedicated to St. Ed- 
mund, king and martyr, and to St. Mary ; and the 
other to St. Laud. He adhered, however, not the 
less faithfully to the fallen fortunes of his former 
sovereign, and as zealously, but more peaceably en- 
deavoured to uphold them, as far as circumstances 
would now permit. Accordingly in 1175, when 
Roderic O' Conor was reduced to narrow his nego- 
tiations and exertions to the sole object of securing 
the sovereignty of his own province of Connaught, 
he despatched Catholicus, Archbishop of Tuam, the 
Abbot of St. Brandan, and Archbishop Laurence, 
(styled in the treaty, Roderic's chancellor,) to wait 
upon King Henry at Windsor, where he held his 
court. There these emissaries concluded that re- 
markable treaty, which is yet extant, and in which 
the contracting parties are both named kings, Henry 
of England, and Roderic of Connaught.* It was, 



* Rvmer's Foedera ad ami. 



62 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



on this occasion, Archbishop O' Toole visited the 
shrine of Thomas-a-Becket at Canterbury ; and, as 
the writer of his life says, narrowly escaped death 
from an insane individual, who conceived he would 
do a meritorious action by murdering the prelate, 
and assimilating his fate with that of Becket. Ac- 
cordingly, he rushed upon him as he was celebrating 
mass, beat him down, and inflicted grievous wounds 
upon his head. When the archbishop recovered, the 
king, on hearing of the circumstance, would have 
punished the attempt by the death of the offender, 
but the archbishop interceded for his life, which was 
spared accordingly. 

In 1 1 76, when the remains of Strongbow were 
deposited in the church he had so lately beautified 
and enlarged, when " the proud invader" was let 
down into the grave, amidst a population whose homes 
he had desolated, Archbishop Laurence presided at 
the solemn rites, that close the enmities of man and 
mingle, with the better recollections of the dead, the 
hopes and prayers that point to everlasting life ; yet, 
with what deep reflections must he have witnessed 
the clay thrown over that cold corse, that was once 
animated with such an adventurous spirit, the narrow 
home of him who was the prominent actor in the 
catastrophe of a nation, whose successful ambition had 
triumphed over the independence of Ireland, sub- 
verted its ancient constitution, dissolved the privileges 
of its families, confined its monarch within a portion 
of the remotest province of his former kingdom, and 
erected out of the remainder, palatinates and baronies, 



LAURENCE O'TOOLE. 63 

yet, in the words of William of Newbridge, " carried 
to the grave no part of those spoils he coveted so 
eagerly in life, putting to risk even his eternal sal- 
vation to amass them ; but at last leaving to unthank- 
ful heirs all he had acquired through so much toil 
and danger, affording, by his fate, a salutary lesson to 
mankind." 

kin 1177 Cardinal Vivian presided as legate at a 
ouncil in Dublin, where the right of the King of 
England to the sovereignty of Ireland, in virtue of 
the Pope's authority, was further inculcated. There 
is no positive evidence, however, that Archbishop 
Laurence took part in this proceeding, although he 
appears, in other transactions, conjointly with Vivian 
during his stay in Ireland. In 1178 he granted and 
confirmed to the church of the Holy Trinity, those 
of St. Michan, St. Michael, St. John the Evangelist, 
St. Brigid, St. Paul, and all the profits of the mills, 
which the said church was known to possess without 
the walls near the bridge, and the fishery with the 
tithes of salmon and of all other fishes on either 
side of the water-course of the LifTey, and all the 
lands of Ratheny, Portrane, Rathsillan, Kinsaly, the 
third part of Cloghney, the third part of Killallin, 
Lisluan, Killester, Duncuanach, Glasnevin, Magdu- 
nia, St. Doulogh's, Ballymacamleib, Cloncoen, Tal- 
lagh, Tullaghcoen, Killingincleam, Kiltinan, Rathsal- 
laghan, Tullaghnaescope, Drumhing, Ballyrochaican, 
half of Rathmihi, Tiradran, Ballyrochan, and Bally- 
moailph, with all their appurtenances for ever.* 



* Roll in Christ Church. 



64 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

In 1179 this archbishop, with some other Irish 
prelates, proceeded to Rome, to assist at the Gene- 
ral Council then held there, being the second 
Council of Lateran. King Henry, however, before 
he would permit them to pass through his dominions, 
exacted from them a solemn oath, not to prejudice 
him or his empire in the progress of their mission. 
On Laurence's arrival at Rome, he obtained a bull 
from the pope, confirming the dioceses of Glendalough, 
Kildare, Ferns, Leighlin, and Ossory, to his metro- 
political authority, and further assuring to his own 
see its lands and possessions, as therein most fully 
detailed. The Pope also created him legate of Ire- 
land, in virtue of which commission, according to his 
biographers, he, afterwards, on his return, exercised 
legatine authority in his native country. 

In 1180, according to Hoveden and Benedict, 
he again passed out of Ireland, entrusted by the un- 
fortunate Roderic, to place that prince's son as an 
hostage with the English king, then sojourning in 
Normandy, as was stipulated in the before-mentioned 
treaty of Windsor. There the archbishop was de- 
tained by the king, whose displeasure he had incurred, 
as Cambrensis alleges, by having, through zeal for 
his country's service, made some harsh representations 
at Rome of the Anglo-Irish Government, and ob- 
tained from the Pope privileges derogatory of the 
royal dignity. But, as all history evinces that this 
patriotic prelate discharged the duties of his high 
clerical station in the most exemplary manner, and 
even yielded his political antipathies to the necessities 






LAURENCE ? TOOLE. 65 



of the times, it may be naturally concluded, that his 
remonstrances and authority were only such as justice 
would warrant, and directed against the barbarity of 
the adventurers of the day. Such honest representa- 
tions, of the encroachments they would have made 
in temporal and spiritual property, should be fairly con- 
sidered as so far from violating Laurence's engagement 
to Henry, that, in reality, the honest interest of the 
English crown could not be better advanced, than by 
the suppression of the wanton outrages he vainly 
witnessed. It was by the disregard of his expostula- 
tions that a host of needy adventurers were endowed 
in Ireland, and a government founded within the 
pale of that devoted country, which was felt only in 
its power to do injustice. Well had it been, if the 
consequences of that misrule had died with the tyrants 
who first perpetrated it. Unfortunately, however, 
for the generations of ages, the acts of those detached 
and licentious chiefs were permitted to assume the 
name of English administration, and bigotries were 
engendered, and hatreds associated, which only the 
nineteenth century is dissolving. 

Archbishop Laurence lived to see his country the 
patrimony of strangers ; but, to the last hour of his 
i existence, he laboured to avert the evils of that dis- 
pensation, and to place a country, whose intestine 
divisions made it incapable and unworthy of indepen- 
dence, under the lawful protection of England's 
Kings, not the fickle despotism of alien Palatines. 
In the midst, however, of the ill-merited restraints 
imposed upon him, it was too fatally evinced, that 

F 



66 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

banishment from his country accelerated his dissolu- 
tion. In Normandy the sickness fell upon him, and, 
conscious that the hour of his demise was approaching, 
he retired into the monastery of Regular Canons, at 
Eu, on the confines of that province, anxious to close 
his life within its peaceful walls, and amidst the 
brethren of his favourite order. Yet, even in the 
sacred reflections of that moment, the afflictions of 
his country lived in his remembrance; from his 
death bed, he is recorded as having sent a monk of 
the fraternity to the camp of Henry, to implore 
" peace" for Ireland ; and, when some token of assent 
was given by the King, and communicated to the 
prelate, it mingled with the hopes of a dying Christ- 
ian, and he sunk into his last repose on the 14th of 
November, 1180. Immediately after his burial, 
which took place at Eu, King Henry despatched 
Jeoffrey de la Hay, his chaplain, into Ireland, to 
seize the revenues of the see, which he held over for 
nearly one year. 

The remains of Archbishop Laurence were, at 
first, placed in a shrine before the altar of the martyr 
Leodegarius ; but, when the prelate was canonized, 
in 1218, by Pope Honorius the Third, they were, 
with great solemnity, translated, and placed over the 
high altar, where they were long preserved in a silver 
shrine. The abbey, that was sanctified by his death, 
was, on his canonization, dedicated anew to him, and 
his festival has continued to be celebrated there 
yearly, with one office of nine lessons, as it is also 
observed in Ireland, under the particular sanction of 



ST. LAURENCE o'TOOLE. 67 

a decree of Pope Benedict the Fourteenth. " Cherish 
in your memory," says that pontiff, addressing the 
archbishops and bishops of Ireland, " Cherish in your 
memory St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, whom 
our predecessor, St. Celestine, sent to you, of whose 
apostolic mission and preaching, such an abundant 
harvest has grown, that Ireland, before his time 
idolatrous, was suddenly called, and deservedly is, 
the Island of Saints ; cherish in your memory St. 
Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, whose ardour for 
the conversion of souls St. Bernard has depicted in 
the boldest colouring. He stood forth undaunted, in 
every manner prepared to convert the wolves into 
sheep, to admonish in public, to convince in private, 
to touch the chords of the heart boldly or gently, 
as suited the subject. Traversing the country, he 
sought the aspirations which he might turn to the 
service of the true God ; neither was he carried by 
horse, but on foot, like an apostle, he performed his 
mission. And yet, with even more sincerity, cherish 
in your memory St. Laurence, the Archbishop of Dub- 
lin, whom, born as he was of royal blood, our predeces- 
sor, Alexander the Third, in the Council of Lateran, 
selected as his legate apostolic for Ireland, and whom 
Honorius the Third, alike our predecessor, afterwards 
canonized; whence you may well know what services 
that saintly man rendered to his flock. But if yet 
more we were to exhort you to cherish in your me- 
mory the very holy men, Columbanus, Kilian, Virgil, 
Rumold, St. Gall, and the many others who, coming 
out of Ireland, carried the true faith over the provinces 

f 2 



68 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

of the continent, or established it with the blood of 
their martyrdom, we should far exceed the limits of a 
letter. Suffice it to commend to you, to bear in 
memory the religion and the piety of those that have 
preceded you, and the solicitude for the duties of 
their station, which has established their everlasting 
glory and happiness."* 

In reference to his personal appearance, St. Lau- 
rence is represented as having been tall, and graceful 
in stature, of a comely presence, and, in his outward 
habit, grave but rich. His life, published by Surius, 
is said to have been written by Ralph of Bristol, 
Bishop of Kildare, in the commencement of the 
thirteenth century ; and a correct copy thereof is re- 
ported to be in Archbishop Ussher's collection, in 
Trinity College, Dublin. The biography, from 
which the chief facts above related have been selected, 
was written by a brother of the monastery of Eu, and 
is published in Messingham's Flori/egium. It but 
remains to mention, that, in the Roman Catholic 
church, St. Laurence is the patron saint of the diocese 
of Dublin.f 

JOHN COMYN. 

[Sue. 1181. Ob. 1212.] 

When the English monarch could no longer keep 
this see vacant, and absorb its revenues, he resolved 

. * De Burgo, Hib. Dom. p. 22. 

... t It should be here noted, that the attack of Hasculph on Dublin, 
stated ante, p. 56, &c, as in aid of the siege by Roderic and the 
natives, is by some stated as a distinct and earlier occurrence. 



JOHN CO MY N, 69 

that an office, of so much consequence and value, 
should not be entrusted to an Irishman, entertaining 
some apprehensions, perhaps justifiable at the crisis, 
that a native might assume the mantle of the de- 
parted prelate, and consummate, with more hostility, 
those political objects which St. Laurence had 
laboured to effect in peace. Accordingly, on the 
monarch's urgent recommendation, his chaplain, John 
Coinyn, a native of England, a monk of the Bene- 
dictine abbey of Evesham, and a man of learning and 
eloquence, was, on the 6th of September, in the year 

1181, elected to the archbishopric of Dublin, by some 
of the clergy of that city, who had assembled at 
Evesham for the purpose. He was not then a priest, 
but was subsequently, in the same year, ordained 
such, at Velletri; and, on Palm Sunday (21st March) 
was there consecrated archbishop by Pope Lucius the 
Third, who, also, by a bull dated the 13th of April, 

1182, took under his especial protection, and con- 
firmed to this see, the manor of Swords, with its 
church and other appurtenances, the town of Lusk, 
with its church and appurtenances, &c. He also 
further established its metropolitan authority over the 
suffragan sees, ordered that no canons, or monks, or 
clergymen in any of the churches of the diocese, 
should remove or appoint chaplains therein, unless 
fortified in so doing by privilege from Rome, or by 
ancient and reasonable custom, prohibited the selling, 
aliening, or incumbering church property, without 
the consent of the archbishop, or any similar acts by 
the archbishop himself; and, lastly, in pursuance of 
the authority of the Holy Canons, ordered and de- 



70 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 






creed that no archbishop, or bishop, should, without 
the assent of the archbishop of Dublin, (if in his 
bishopric,) presume to hold, within the diocese of 
Dublin, any conference, or to entertain any causes or 
ecclesiastical matters of the same diocese, unless en- 
joined thereto by the Roman pontiff, or his legate.* 
From this latter privilege, which appears to have been 
introduced as against the antiquated claims of Can- 
terbury, arose that controversy on the Jus Primatiale 
between the archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, 
which continued to distract both provinces for cen- 
turies afterwards, the archbishop of Armagh contend- 
ing, that, notwithstanding this grant, he had a right 
of primacy, of bearing up the cross, and of holding 
appeals and visitations in the whole province of 
Leinster. Cambrensis, who was personally acquainted 
with Archbishop Comyn, asserts, that at the said time 
of his consecration, he was created a cardinal ; but, as 
there is no assumption of this title in any of Comyn's 
charters yet extant, nor any evidence thereof in 
Onuphrius or Ciaconius, who have published cata- 
logues of the cardinals, nor in the very bull of Pope 
Lucius before mentioned, Ware very reasonably 
concludes, that Giraldus was mistaken in this par- 
ticular. 

Notwithstanding the necessities of the province 
over which he was thus appointed to preside, and the 
singularly arduous duties he had to prosecute, if the 
English representations of the state of Ireland could 
be fully accredited, Comyn deferred visiting that 



* Alani Regist. f. 2. Ware and Harris completely mistake the 
meaning of the original. 



JOHN COMYN. 71 

country for three whole years, until at last, in Sep- 
tember, 1184, he was despatched thither by the king, 
to prepare for the reception of Prince John, Earl of 
Moreton, whom his royal father had resolved to send 
into this country. It was, upon this occasion, accord- 
ing to some,* that the king conferred upon Comyn 
and his successors, the lands of Coillagh and its ap- 
purtenances, in barony tenure, in which right he 
became a lord of parliament, and was the first of the 
Irish hierarchy invested with those feudal and baronial 
rights, which the Norman policy had introduced, as 
particularly mentioned at " Swords," in the " His- 
tory of the County of Dublin." In 1185, he was 
one of the English nobles, who, as pre-arranged, re- 
ceived John and his train on his arrival at Waterford; 
and in the same year obtained from the boy prince, 
during his sojourn in Ireland, a grant of the Bishopric 
of Glendalough, with all its appurtenances in lands, 
manors, churches, tithes, fisheries, liberties, &c., to 
hold to him and his successors for ever.f This grant 
Prince John professes to make under the impulse of 
divine love, and for the safety of his soul, and that of 
his father and all his ancestors and successors, and in 
consideration of the thinness of the population and 
the poverty of the church of Dublin. It was pro- 

ivided, however, that this union should not take effect 
until after the decease of the then Bishop of Glen- 
dalough, William Piro, an event which did not occur 
until the year 1214, when Comyn was himself in the 
grave. 

* Liber Niger and Crede Mihi. f lb. 



72 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

In the year 1186, after the return of Prince John 
into England, Archbishop Comyn held a provincial 
synod in Dublin, in the church of the Holy Trinity, 
which began to sit on the Sunday Laetare Jerusalem, 
or the fourth Sunday of Lent. The canons there 
agreed to, and confirmed under the leaden seal of 
Pope Urban the Third, are yet extant among the 
archives preserved in Christ Church, Dublin, and are 
as follow : — The first prohibits priests from celebra- 
ting mass on a wooden table (or altar) according to 
the usage of Ireland, and enjoins that in all monas- 
teries and baptismal churches altars should be made 
of stone ; and, if a stone of sufficient size to cover the 
whole surface of the altar could not be had, that in 
such case a square, entire and polished stone be fixed 
in the middle of the altar, where Christ's body is 
consecrated, of a compass broad enough to contain 
five crosses, and also to bear the foot of the largest 
chalice. But in chapels, chantries, or oratories, if 
necessity compelled the use of wooden altars, that 
then the mass should be celebrated upon plates of 
stone of the before-mentioned size, firmly fixed in 
the wood. — Second provides, that the coverings of 
the holy mysteries shall spread over the whole up- 
per part of the altar, and that a cloth shall cover 
the front of the same, and reach to the ground or 
floor. These coverings to be always whole and 
clean. — Third, that in monasteries and rich churches, 
chalices be provided of gold and silver ; but in poorer 
churches, where such cannot be afforded, that pewter 
chalices may be substituted, which must be likewise 



P^ 






JOHN COMYN. 73 



kept pure and clean. — Fourth, that the Host which 
represents the Lamb without spot, the Alpha and 
Omega, be made so white and pure, that the par- 
takers thereof may thereby understand the purifying 
and feeding of their souls rather than their bodies. — 
Fifth, that the wine in the sacrament be so tempered 
with water, that it be not deprived either of the na- 
tural taste or colour. — Sixth, that all vestments and 
coverings belonging to the church be clean, fine, and 
white. — Seventh, that a lavatory of stone or wood be 
set up, and so contrived with a hollow, that whatever 
is poured into it may fall through and lodge in the 
earth ; through which, also, the last washing of the 
priest's hands after the holy communion may pass. — 
Eighth enjoins, that an immoveable font be placed 
in the middle of every baptismal church, or in such 
other part of it as the paschal procession may conve- 
niently pass round. That it be made of stone, or of 
wood lined with lead for cleanness, wide and large 
above, bored through to the bottom, and so contrived, 
that, after the ceremony of baptism be ended, the holy 
water may by a secret pipe be conveyed down to 
mother earth. — Ninth, that the coverings of the altar, 
and other vestments dedicated to God, when injured 
by age, be burned within the enclosure of the church, 
and the ashes transmitted through the aforesaid pipe 
of the font, to be buried in the bowels of the earth. 
— Tenth prohibits any vessels used in baptism, from 
being applied ever after to any domestic purposes. — ■ 
Eleventh forbids, under the pain of an anathema, any 
person from burying in a churchyard, unless he can 



74 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

show by an authentic writing, or undeniable evidence, 
that it was consecrated by a bishop, not only as a 
sanctuary or place of refuge, but also as a place of 
sepulture ; and that no laymen shall presume to bury 
their dead in such a consecrated place, without the 
presence of a priest. — Twelfth forbids the celebration 
of divine service in chapels built by laymen, to the 
detriment of the mother churches. — Thirteenth re- 
cites, that the clergy of Ireland, among other virtues, 
have been always remarkably eminent for their chas- 
tity, and that it would be ignominious if they should 
be corrupted, through his (the archbishop's) negli- 
gence, by the foul contagion of strangers, and the 
example of a few incontinent men ; and, therefore, 
prohibits, under the penalty of losing both office and 
benefice, any priest, deacon, or sub-deacon, from 
having or retaining any woman in their houses, either 
under the pretence of necessary service, or any other 
colour whatsoever, unless a mother, own sister, or 
such a person, whose age should remove all suspicion 
of any unlawful commerce. — Fourteenth contains an 
interdict against simony, under the before-mentioned 
penalty of losing both office and benefice. — Fifteenth 
directs, that if any clerk should receive an ecclesias- 
tical benefice from a lay hand, unless after a third 
monition he renounce that possession which he ob- 
tained by intrusion, he should be anathematized, and 
for ever deprived of the said benefice. — Sixteenth 
prohibits a bishop from ordaining the inhabitant of 
another diocese without the commendatory letters of 
such person's proper bishop, or of the archdeacon, 






JOHN COMYN. 75 

and orders that none shall be promoted to holy or- 
ders, without a certain title of a benefice assigned 
to him. — Seventeenth prohibits the conferring on 
one person, two holy orders in one day.* — Eigh- 
teenth provides, that all persons living unchastely 
together, shall be compelled to celebrate a lawful 
marriage ; and, also, that no person, the offspring of 
an illicit connexion, should be promoted to holy or- 
ders, nor be esteemed heir either to father or mother, 
unless they be afterwards joined in lawful matrimony. 
— Nineteenth directs, that tithes be paid to the mo- 
ther churches out of provisions, hay, the young of 
animals, flax, wool, gardens, orchards, and out of all 
things that grow and renew yearly, under pain of an 
anathema after the third monition, and that those, 
who continue obstinate in refusing to pay same, shall 
be compelled to punctuality for the future. — Twen- 
tieth provides, that all archers, and all others who 
carry arms, not for the defence of the people but for 
plunder and sordid lucre, shall, on every Lord's day 
be excommunicated with bell, book, and candle, and, 
in the last extremity, be denied the rites of Christian 
burial. 

On the 3rd of September, 1189? Archbishop 
Comyn assisted at the coronation of King Richard 
the First, and was a witness of that monarch's letters 
patent* for surrendering to William, King of Scot- 
land, the castles of Rockbork and Berwick, thereby 
acknowledged to belong to the Scottish king by he- 



Rymer's Foedera ad ann. 



76 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

reditary right. He also, on the 17th of September 
following, assisted at a council of the nobility and 
gentry, which the same monarch, previous to his de- 
parture for the Holy Land, assembled in the Abbey 
of Pipewell in Northamptonshire, on which occasion, 
the regency of the kingdom, during the monarch's 
absence, was arranged. There, likewise, on the en- 
suing day, Comyn consecrated John, Bishop elect of 
Whitherne. 

In the following year, this prelate, having taken 
down an old parochial church which was said to have 
been founded by St. Patrick, in the southern sub- 
urbs of the city of Dublin, erected on its site the fair 
edifice, which was also dedicated to that saint, ele- 
vated it to the rank of a collegiate establishment, and 
endowed it with suitable possessions, placing in it 
thirteen prebendaries, afterwards augmented to the 
present number. He also, about the same time, 
partly repaired and partly enlarged the choir of the 
cathedral of Christ Church, and founded and en- 
dowed the nunnery of Grace Dieu in the County of 
Dublin, for regular canonesses of the order of St. 
Augustine, whom he removed thither from the more 
ancient convent of Lusk. 

Early in the year 1191 John Earl of Moreton, 
as Lord of Ireland, confirmed to this prelate and his 
successors, all liberties theretofore granted to his see, 
with the extraordinary additional licence, that he 
and they might hold a court throughout the land 
of Ireland, and administer justice to their own 
people, as well within as without this diocese. Har- 



JOHN COMYN. 77 

ris doubts the authenticity of the instrument, on 
the ground, that at the time, to which he refers it, 
(1184,) John had no power to give such an extent 
of authority; the grant, however, from the names 
of the witnesses and other internal evidence, is 
correctly referable to the above year, when John's 
assumption of power was more probable, in the ab- 
sence of King Richard at the siege of Acre, and 
the charter is undoubtedly preserved amongst the 
most ancient documents of the See in Christ Church. 
About the same time, Maolisa, on being raised to the 
See of Clogher, surrendered to this prelate and his 
successors his claim to the church of All Hallows 
near Dublin, reserving it, however, to himself during 
his life, to be held of the said archbishop and of the 
church of the Holy Trinity. 

In 1192 Prince John gave this prelate an additi- 
onal mark of his favour, confirming to him and his suc- 
cessors for ever the previous grant of the bishopric of 
Glendalough, "so that upon its vacancy the archbishop 
should hold it without rendering any account to the 
crown therefore, and should provide for it according to 
his discretion, and that, in the mean time, the bishop 
elect should be his chaplain and vicegerent ;" the 
charter of which grant was, thereupon, confirmed by 
the apostolic legate, Matthew O'Heney, Archbishop 
of Cash el, at a great synod held in Dublin. Corny n 
had at the same time a royal grant for an eight day 
fair, to be held in his town of Swords, with all cus- 
toms to the same justly appertaining ; and, in the 
exercise of his worldly prudence, still farther forti- 



78 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

fied the rights of his see by a confirmation of its 
possessions, both spiritual and temporal, from Eva, 
the daughter and heiress of Dermot Mac Murrough, 
while in 1193 he obtained from Pope Celestine the 
Third a further assurance of the see of Glendalough, 
according to the above arrangement of the legate. 

In 1197 this prelate was much harassed and 
despoiled by Hamo de Valoniis, alias de Valois, 
who, being appointed Justiciary of Ireland under 
Prince John, and finding the government embar- 
rassed by the want of a treasury, seized on several 
lands belonging to this see notwithstanding the op- 
position of the archbishop. Representations of these 
and other wilful and unauthorised spoliations by de 
Valois having been made at Rome, and Comyn 
having felt himself obliged to fly to France, Pope 
Innocent the Third wrote a remonstrance to John, 
dated 18th September, 1198, in which he complained 
of the unjust and outrageous conduct of the Deputy, 
and also of John himself, for having detained the 
archbishop in Normandy. Hamo was thereupon re- 
called from the government, having greatly enriched 
himself by the plunder of not only the church, but 
the laity. It is recorded, however, that he soon felt 
remorse for his crimes towards Comyn, and, in part 
compensation therefore, made a grant of twenty 
ploughlands to the archbishop and his successors for 
ever. But the resentment which John conceived, by 
reason of the appeal to Rome, was more inflexibly 
cherished, and not until 1206, does he seem to have 
received the prelate to his favour, as is testified by 



HENRY DE LOUNDRES. 79 

a record of that year, preserved in the Chapter-house 
of Westminster, wherein the king, after reciting that 
he had given up his " anger and indignation" against 
the Archbishop of Dublin, and received him into 
full favour, commands the Lord Justice of Ireland to 
protect him from any injury, and to restore to him 
the lands and liberties which he enjoyed, " on the 
day when the discord first commenced between us 
and him, concerning our foresters and others our 
servants." 

Comyn survived this reconciliation about six 
years, and, dying on the 25th of October, in the 
year 1212, was buried in Christ Church, where a 
marble monument was erected to his memory, in the 
south side of the choir which he had repaired and 
enlarged. 



HENRY DE LOUNDRES. 
[Succ. 1213. Ob. 1228.] 

Before the close of the year 1212 Henry of Lon- 
don, Archdeacon of Stafford, was elected into this 
archiepiscopal see, and, about the beginning of the 
year following, was consecrated. The appointment 
did not, however, immediately or permanently remove 
him from England, and he is found a sitting member 
of King John's council, a spiritual baron of the 
realm, in the most important transactions of that 
reign. In the year 1213, when that monarch 
executed his charter of surrender of the crowns of 
England and Ireland to Pandulph, the Pope's legate, 



80 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

de Loundres was present, but protested against the 
deed, and, it might seem, refused to subscribe it as a 
witness. It accordingly concludes, " Teste rege, 
coram Henrico Archiepiscopo Dubliniensi et aliis." 
Soon after which he was sent to conduct Stephen 
Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the rest of 
the exiled bishops, to the King's presence.* In the 
July of the same year, he was appointed Lord Justice of 
Ireland., in the administration of which office he con- 
tinued until the year 1215, while, in the intermediate 
year, (1214,) his sovereign confirmed to him the 
archiepiscopal lands, and particularly those of Coillagh 
with its appurtenances, which, as the charter roll, of 
record in the Tower of London, states, had been pre- 
viously granted " in baroniam," with, however, the 
especial reservation, that the King, on his going into 
Ireland, might resume these lands, on assigning others 
in a peaceable and convenient situation to the see. 
In the same year, upon the death of William Piro, 
the last legally recognised Bishop of Glendalough, 
that see, which had existed separate for about 600 
years, was virtually united and annexed to the diocese 
of Dublin, as before mentioned in the preliminary 
account of its constitution ; but, although this ar- 
rangement was established as well by popes as by 
kings, many distinct individualsf will be found in the 

* Rot. claus. 15 John. 
t At some future period, the memoirs of these persons, their see, and 
the lovely and interesting country of their jurisdiction maybe published 
by the author of this work. It has been some years since nearly 
compiled. 



HENRY DE LOUNDRES. 81 

possession of Glendalough, as a separate see, either 
by usurpation, or pontifical promotion, from the 
period here mentioned down to the year 1497 5 and 
so maintained by the septs of a country not then a 
portion of the English pale. 

In 1215 de Loundres, being cited to Rome to 
assist at a general council, committed the govern- 
ment of Ireland to Geoffrey de Mariscis, under the 
title of " Gustos ;" and, passing through England, 
was, on the 15th of June, in the same year, present 
and of council with King John, together with the 
Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops and 
parous of England, when the King executed the 
Magna Charta and the Carta de Eoresta at Runimede, 
and his name is mentioned in the said charters, as 
having advised the king to ratify them ; but, although 
this prelate and William Earl Marshal, a baron of 
great w T eight and extensive property in Ireland, 
were both attendant on the king, and intimately in 
his councils, it does not appear, upon this great oc- 
casion, that any particular requisitions were made in 
behalf of his subjects in Ireland, or any measures 
taken for including them specifically in the recog- 
nitions from the crown. On his arrival in Rome, 
Pope Innocent the Third ratified the aforesaid union 
of Glendalough with Dublin, and, in 1216, confirmed 
the possessions of the see, enumerating them as the 
churches of St. Patrick in Dublin, Saints Peter 
and Paul in Glendalough, Monecolumbkill, Kenhell, 
Inisboiden, St. Brigid near Arklow, with all their 
appurtenances ; the advowsons of the monasteries of 

G 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

All Hallows without the city of Dublin, Holm- 
patrick, the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem without 
the New Gate, and the advowsons of the churches 
of the Salmon-Leap, Con fee, Moone, and of the 
town of Robert Widside ; all parish churches within 
the walls and in the suburbs of the said city, and all 
other churches which are in the valley of Dublin 
with their appurtenances ; the houses and buildings at 
St. Sepulchre with their burgages and appurtenances; 
the manors of St. Kevin, Swords, Lusk, Clonme- 
than, Portrane, Finglas, Clondalkin, Rathcoole, with 
the Newtown, Tallagh, Kilnasantan, Taney, Rath- 
michael, Stagonil, Killadreene, Kilcoole, Glenda- 
lough, Ballymore, the holy wood of Coillagh, Do- 
naghchimelagh, Tipperkevin, Tobber, Dunlavan, 
Donard, and Kilbele, Dunboke, Rathsallaghan, 
Donanamore, Strabo, Arderia, Crothekevin, Shan- 
kill, Killmakebur, Brederi, Adkip, and Cronane, 
with the appurtenances of the same ; the islands of 
Lambay, Ireland's Eye, Dalkey, and a knight's fee 
in Howth. He also confirmed the suffragan sees of 
this province, as Ossory, Leighlin, Ferns, and Kildare, 
with all the rights and privileges of the pall, and in- 
terdicted any other archbishop or bishop from holding 
conferences, or entertaining causes in the diocese of 
Dublin, in nearly the same terms as Pope Lucius had 
done in favour of his predecessor in 1182. 

In the same year, (1216,) Archbishop de Loundres 
had a grant to him and his successors* from King 






* Harris's Ware, p. 300. 



HENRY DE LO'UNDIIES. - 83 

John, of the manor of Penkeriz, with the villages of 
Cungrave, Culega, Wuolgareston, and Beffecote, the 
land of the Duun, the fair of the village of Penkeriz, 
and the deanery of the church of St. Mary of Pen- 
keriz, in the diocese of Coventry and Litchfield ; and 
the king also conferred upon him and his successors 
the lordship or manor of Timothan. These grants 
being avowedly made in part satisfaction of the deep 
obligations which the monarch owed to de Loundres, 
for undertaking to build the Castle of Dublin, as 
some say, at his own expense, his other charges in 
the King's service, while he was Lord Justice, his 
attendance at the court of Rome to solicit aid against 
the barons, and the singular additional item of his 
having " promptly bought up as much scarlet cloth 
as would serve to make robes for the King of Ireland 
and other his (John's) liege subjects there, when he 
received instructions to that effect, by writ of the 
23rd of August, 1215."* " Probably," says Leland, 
commenting on the latter circumstance, " these robes 
were made after the English mode. If so, it was by 
no means a contemptible device to endeavour to ha- 
bituate those chiefs to the English garb, and by their 
example to render it fashionable in their territories. 
The gentler and less offensive method of introducing 
an advantageous change of apparel, gradually and im- 
perceptibly, under the appearance of grace and favour, 
had it been pursued with steadiness and address, 
might have proved more effectual than the penal laws 



* Rymer's Foedera ad aim. 

g2 



84 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

of later times, which, by an avowed and violent oppo- 
sition to the manners of the Irish, proved too odious to 
be executed." From the period of those grants, each 
succeeding archbishop of Dublin assumed the title, 
as recorded in the Liber Niger. " N. miseratione 
divina, ecclesiarum cathedralium sanctissimae Trini- 
tatis regularis abbas, et sancti Patricii episcopus, et 
sedis apostolicae gratia archiepiscopus ac Hibernensis 
ecelesiae primas, liberasque capelke regiag Sancta? 
Marias de Penkeriz in Anglia decanus natus, princeps 
Palatious de Harold's" Cross, coepiscopatuumque se- 
dibus suffraganeorum vacantibus custos, spiritualitatis 
jurisdiction's atque omnium decimarum in eadem pro- 
vincia custos." The advowson of this church of 
Penkeriz, it is here to be observed, was originally 
conferred by King Stephen on the church of Litch- 
field ; but, being endowed with lands, and made 
collegiate by a person named Hugh Hussey, that 
individual gave it to King John, who, thereupon, 
made the above disposition of it to de Loundres. 
This establishment consisted of a dean, eight preben- 
daries, two residentiary canons without prebends, a 
sacrist, who was a canon, and the dean's vicar, and 
had the benefit of mortuaries and other casualties. 
One of those prebends, it appears by a taxation re- 
cited by Piott, was called the Dean's Prebend, which 
probably was annexed to the dignity of the dean, after 
the constitution of this church was again altered from 
a collegiate into that of a dean and chapter. There 
are various records, some of which are alluded to 
hereafter, recognising the rights of the see of Dublin 



3 



HENRY DE LOUNDRES. 85 

herein, even down to the eighteenth century, when 
it passed into other hands. 

In 1217? the Pope having constituted this prelate 
his legate in Ireland, he convened a synod at Dublin, 
" wherein," according to the Annals of St. Mary's 
Abbey, " he established many things profitable for 
the state of the Irish church." Its canons are extant 
in the ancient Register of Christ Church, called 
" Crede Mihi." About the same time, or a short 
time previously, de Loundres annexed to the eco- 
nomy of St. Patrick's, the tithes of the lands of the 
citizens of Dublin near Donnybrook, half a burgage 
near St. Kevin's gate, a mill near Dunore, and the 
church of Monecolumbkill, with its appendant chapels. 

In 1219 5 Jeffrey de Mariscis having been recalled 
from the government of Ireland, this prelate again 
assumed its administration, which he continued to ex- 
ercise until the year 1224. In 1220 he is said to 
have put out the fire called inextinguishable, which 
appears to have been kindled by St. Brigid at Kildare, 
possibly to allure the gentiles of her day by the pre- 
sence of their revered element, solemnly mingled 
with the uses of a pure spiritual worship, and which 
Cambrensis alleges was kept up by the successive 
nuns of her establishment. In the same year, de 
Loundres removed the religious fraternity of Holm- 
patrick to the more convenient foundation at Sker- 
ries. 

In 1221 Pope Honorius further prohibited any 
archbishop or bishop from holding conferences or 
trials in the province of Dublin, or erecting the cro- 



86 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

zier therein, excepting, however, the archbishop's 
suffragans, and any authorized legate of the Pope. 
In the following year, this prelate gave to the cathe- 
dral of St. Patrick, and to the church of the Holy 
Trinity, a yearly pension of 10s. each, being the 
amount which the citizens of Dublin were adjudged 
to pay, as compensation for having enclosed and tilled 
a parcel of ground belonging to him, and to the use 
of which his grace's tenants of St. Sepulchre's and St. 
Kevin's were entitled as a common of pasture.* Soon 
afterwards, however, his own encroachments on the 
rights of the crownf in behalf of the church, and 
his drawing temporal causes into the ecclesiastical 
courts, excited considerable prejudice against him. 
The citizens of Dublin particularly complained of 
such his practices, and, in consequence of their re- 
presentations, the king issued a mandate,^ perempto- 
rily prohibiting any recurrence of such injustice, and 
the prelate was obliged to conclude an agreement 
with the citizens in reference to the matter, which is 
of record and dated the 18th of March, 1224. In 
the same year, the abbot and fraternity of Tewkes- 
bury, to whose house Prince John granted the lands 
of Dungarvan in the diocese of Lismore, sold same 
to this prelate in consideration of £24, the estate 
being declared to be utterly unprofitable and waste 
in their hands. 

In 1225 (according to Prynne) Pope Honorius 



* Crede Mihi. f Rot. Clans. 7 Hen, Ill 

% See Piynne, V, 3, 63, &c. 



HENRY DE LOUNDRES. 



•87 



sent a Bull to de Loundres, giving him authority to 
summon all such as detained the king's castles in Ire- 
land, and if, on investigation, the fact should be esta- 
blished against any, then to compel the delinquents, 
unless otherwise acquiescent, to surrender same under 
pain of ecclesiastical censures for their disobedience. 
In the same year, this prelate granted the church of 
Mone to the economy of St. Patrick's, and concluded 
another agreement with the citizens of Dublin, where- 
by his tenants were to enjoy the freedom and privi- 
leges of the city ; they covenanting to contribute, 
besides the ordinary local charges, their just propor- 
tion of any talliage or aid granted at the special 
mandate of the king.* In 1227 a taxation was made 
of the dignities of St. Patrick's cathedral, with the 
object of levying, from each non-resident prebendary, 
one-fifth of the revenue of the prebend for the use 
of the working clergy. The respective valuations on 
this occasion were as follow : — 



Mone . . . 10 marks. 

Dunlavin . . 15 do. 

Donaghmore . 15 do- 

Ballymore . . 20 do. 

Tipperkevin, . 10 do. 

Dunethymelach 40 do. 

Newcastle . . 20 do. 

Saggard ... 10 do. 

Kilnasantan . 15 do. 

Clondalkin . .120 do. 



Taney . . . 
Clonkene 
llathmichael 
St. Michael's . 
Castleknock. 
Finglas . . . 
Howth . . . 
Swords . . 
Clonmethan 
Lusk .... 



40 marks. 

40 do. 

20 do. 
100 shillings. 

40 marks. 

50 do. 

20 do. 
100 do. 

15 do. 

80 do. 



In the same year the king's writ issued to de Loun- 



^ Liber Niger. 



88 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

dres, as also to the other Irish archbishops, command- 
ing them, when any cathedral in their dioceses of the 
king's advowson should be void, to admit no person 
to it, until it appeared to them by his letters patent, 
that the electors had his licence to proceed to elec- 
tion; immediately after which, Pope Gregory the 
Ninth confirmed certain grants of churches and lands 
which this archbishop and his chapter had made to 
their dean. 

In 1228 King Henry the Third, mindful of the 
before-mentioned obligations which cle Loundres had 
rendered to his father and the state, issued a writ* to 
the Lords Justices, reciting them, and directing a grant 
to this prelate of the custody of all vacant archbishop- 
rics and bishoprics in Ireland, the profits to be re- 
ceived by the hands of John de St. John, Bishop of 
Ferns, and Treasurer of Ireland, and by G. de Theur- 
ville, Archdeacon of Dublin, and to be paid over to 
the archbishop, until the debts and obligations due by 
the crown to him should thereout be satisfied. On 
the 10th of May in the same year, the king issued 
another writf to Richard de Burgo, Lord Justice of 
Ireland, the said Bishop of Ferns, and Archdeacon of 
Dublin, empowering them to audit the accounts con- 
cerning the money raised out of the vacant sees in 
pursuance of the above, to credit the king for what 
the archbishop received thereout, and to certify 
how much was paid, and how much remained due ; 
while a further royal writ assigned one hundred 



* Rot. Pat. 12 Hen. Ill f Rot. Claus. 12 Hen. III. 



HENRY DE LOUNDRES. 89 

pounds out of the farm rents of the city of Limerick, 
and fifty marks annually out of the farm of the city 
of Dublin, as an additional fund for liquidating the 
said demands. 

During the time this archbishop presided over 
the see and province of Dublin, he erected the 
collegiate church of St. Patrick into a cathedral, 
" united," as Allen says in his Registry, " with 
the cathedral of the Holy Trinity in one spouse, 
saving to the other church the prerogative of honour." 
He constituted William Fitz Guy the first dean 
thereof, and appointed a precentor, chancellor, and 
treasurer, to whom he allotted lands and rectories. 
He granted thirteen days' indulgence to penitents 
visiting the abbey of Glastonbury* in England ; and, 
some short time before his death, gave to the prior 
and convent of Christ Church a piece of ground, for 
which Gilbert Comyn paid him the annual rent of 
three marks, in order to facilitate the erection of a 
gatehouse at the entrance of their church, and in 
consideration of their having granted to him a per- 
petual anniversary, to be observed in their convent, 
to his memory. The original instrument of this agree- 
ment, with the seal of de Loundres annexed, is among 
the archieves of Christ Church. Having filled this 
see during fifteen years, he died about the beginning 
of July, in the year 1228, and is said to have been 
buried under a wooden monument near the north 
wall of Christ Church, opposite to his predecessor, 

* Chron. Glast. Hearne, V. ii. p. 384. 



90 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Comyn. There are now, however, no traces of his 
tomb. 

The circumstances under which he obtained the 
opprobrious epithet of " Scorch-villain," as related in 
the " Liber Niger" or Black Book of Christ Church, 
are heavily reproachful to his memory. Having 
summoned his tenants to give an account by what 
title they held their lands, they appeared and pro- 
duced their deeds, of which he instantly possessed 
himself, and threw them into the fire, to the prejudice 
of the unsuspicious farmers. If the transaction really 
occurred, it is no less discreditable to the character of 
the archbishop than to the government of the country 
at the time ; and it must be admitted that various 
other circumstances in the life of this prelate, as 
alluded to in the above memoir, evincing an avidity 
to enlarge the rights and possessions of his church, 
induce too much credence to the probability of his 
assuming this strange and unjustifiable mode of dis- 
continuing interests, which were possibly unjust and 
fraudulent in their creation. 



LUKE. 
[Succ. 1228, Ob. 1255.] 

Upon the death of Archbishop Henry, Luke, 
Dean of St. Martin le Grand, London, and treasurer 
of the King's wardrobe, was, by the interest of 
Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, whose chaplain he 
had been, elected to this see, and obtained the royal 
confirmation thereof, on the 13th of December, 1228. 



LUKE. 9i 

But this election having been set aside at Rome as 
not canonical, he was re-elected, and thereupon, 
though not until the year 1230, confirmed by Pope 
Gregory the Ninth's bull, sub plumbo, which is yet 
extant in the chapter house of Christ Church, Dublin. 
The charges of these elections, and the expenses of 
soliciting the several confirmations of his appointment, 
were probably the occasion of his disafforesting a 
district belonging to his see,* for which he was, in 
the year 1230, called to account, and fined 300 
marks ; yet, in the same year, he obtained the King's 
licence for disafforesting another tract within the de- 
mesnes of the bishopric of Glendalough, and compre- 
hending a considerable portion of the county of 
Wicklow. He had, likewise, about the same time, 
a confirmation to him and his successors of all the 
possessions theretofore granted to the see, and a dis- 
tinct ratificationf of its rights in Timothan, near 
Tallagh, which had been theretofore given by King 
John to de Loundres ; but it was not established as a 
prebend until 1247. 

In 1232, when his patron, Hubert de Burgh, 
Earl of Kent, had fallen under the King's displeasure, 
and was cruelly prosecuted by the court, and deserted 
by all his friends, Archbishop Luke, to his great 
credit, adhered unchangeably to his interest, and, by 
his individual perseverance, succeeded in prevailing 
on his sovereign to indulge him with milder terms 
than were originally intended. 



* Rot. Pat. 14 Hen. III. f Allen's Registry 



92 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

In the following year the king, by special grant, 
empowered this archbishop and his successors to make 
a testamentary distribution of their chattels at any 
period before their respective deaths; and, on the 
26th of September, in 1234, restored to him the 
town of Stagonil with its appurtenances, and all 
liberties and free customs thereto appertaining. In 
1235 Archbishop Luke founded a chantry in the 
chapel of the Blessed Virgin, at St. Patrick's ca- 
thedral ;* and, about the year 1237? confirmed the 
liberties and privileges granted by his predecessor to 
its dean and chapter.*)" He also improved the build- 
ings of Christ Church, and endowed that of St. 
John, without the New Gate, with two burgages 
and six acres of land in St. Kevin's parish. In 
1240 he granted to the vicars serving mass at the 
altar of the Blessed Virgin, in St. Patrick's cathedral, 
a certain portion of the revenues of the church of 
Alderg,J as shewn at that locality, in the " History of 
the County of Dublin;" and, in 1242, assigned, for 
the further maintenance of said vicars, one-third part 
of an impost, which, with the consent of the dean and 
chapter, he had laid on the dignitaries and canons, in 
order thereby to raise a sum for the benefit of the 
common fund, and which every new member of the 
chapter was required to pay, before he obtained pos- 
session of the manse of his predecessor. In 1247? at 
the instance of the said dean and chapter, he made an 
act for the purpose of enforcing the residence of the 

* Liber Niger. t Dign. Dec. % Allen's Registry. 



LUKE. 93 

prebendaries of St. Patrick's cathedral, prescribing 
that every canon should, within a year after his ap- 
pointment, repair in person to that church, and 
swear canonical obedience to the archbishop, his suc- 
cessors, and to the chapter of St. Patrick's, and should 
also bind himself to observe the customs and approved 
rules of the church, which, if he failed to do, he was 
to be deprived of his prebend, his institution and 
instalment were to be void, and the prebend thus 
vacated might be conferred on whomsoever the 
archbishop would think fit.* In the following year, 
with the consent of the Baron of Offaley, he made the 
church of Larabrien a prebend of the same cathedral, 
the perpetual right of presentation being reserved to 
the baron and his heirs. 

About the year 1250 the archbishops, bishops, 
and clergy of Ireland, who were of Irish birth, having 
in a synod enacted a decree, that no Englishman 
born should be admitted a canon in any of their 
churches, King Henry complained thereof to the 
Pope, who directed a bull to them, dated the 8th of 
October in that year, commanding them to rescind 
the said decree within a month, and a special one to 
Archbishop Luke, and to Jeffrey Turville, Bishop of 
Ossory, empowering them, if the other prelates did 
not obey, to declare by his authority such restriction 
null and void. The same Pope, on the 11th of July, 
1252, took under his special protection the churches 
of this diocese, saving the archiepiscopal rights of 



* Allen's Registry. 



( J4 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

advowson, &c. therein, which he further confirmed 
to the see by another bull of the 23rd of October, 
1254. 

In 1253 a great contest arose between the two 
cathedrals of Dublin, concerning the election of the 
successive archbishops upon vacancies,* which Arch- 
bishop Luke would have settled by prescribing that 
the place of election should be only in the church of 
the Holy Trinity, and that there, as well the prior 
and convent as the dean and chapter, should, by joint 
suffrages, elect the new prelate. But the dean and 
chapter of St. Patrick's were not content with this 
adjustment, and complained of it to Innocent the 
Fourth, as a special injustice to them. That Pope 
thereupon issued his bull, dated the 20th of May, in 
the tenth year of his pontificate, and still preserved 
in the archives of Christ Church, whereby he em- 
powered the Bishop of Emly, and the Bishop and 
Dean of Limerick, to determine the controversy ; 
and, if that could not be done, to remit it for the de- 
cision of the apostolic see. About the same time 
the contest concerning the primacy w T as warmly car- 
ried on between this prelate and Reiner, Archbishop 
of Armagh. 

During the latter years of his life, Archbishop 
Luke suffered severely by a malady of the eyes, 
which brought on a total loss of sight, and, ultimately, 
accelerated his decease, in December, 1255. He was 
buried in Christ Church, in the same tomb with his 
predecessor Comyn. 

* Liber Niger. 



FULK DE SAUNDFORD. 95 

FULK DE SAUNDFORD. 

[Succ. 1256. Ob. 1271.] 

After the death of Archbishop Luke, Ralph of 
Norwich, Canon of St. Patrick's, Dublin, and Trea- 
surer of Ireland, was elected to this see by both chap- 
ters ; but, as Matthew Paris states, he was betrayed 
in the Court of Rome by those in whom he confided, 
and by that means lost the accomplishment of his ex- 
pectations. Matthew, in his sketch of Ralph's cha- 
racter, suggests some circumstances w r hich may have 
very reasonably prevented the Pope from ratifying 
his election. " He w 7 as a witty, pleasant companion," 
says the historian, " and one who loved good cheer. 
In his youth he had the greater part of his education 
rather in the king's court, than in the schools where 
the liberal arts were taught. He was elected by the 
canons Archbishop of Dublin, but being opposed by 
some, his confirmation was put off, and the electors 
were reproved for choosing a man altogether secular 
and worldly, one then under the protection and power 
of the king, and placed at the receipt of custom in 
Ireland." This election being thereupon set aside, 
Fulk de Saundford, so called from the place of his 
birth in Oxfordshire, Archdeacon of Middlesex, and 
Treasurer of St. Paul's, London, was, on the 20th 
of July, 1256, by the Pope's Bull* declared Archbi- 
shop, with licence to hold his said treasurership in 
commendam, and all other prebends and ecclesiastical 



* Crede Mihi. 



96 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

benefices which he held before his promotion, not- 
withstanding the constitutions of any general council, 
and, on the 12th of August in the same year, Pope 
Alexander the Fourth issued his bull for further and 
better protection of this prelate's right of collation to 
the livings of his patronage. In the following year, 
the same pontiff empowered him to choose any dis- 
creet priest for his confessor, and, by licence of the 
27th of July, 1257 5 authorized him to unite certain 
religious houses of the Benedictine and Augustine 
order, on account of their extreme poverty. In the 
following year he had leave to rescind and avoid 
several leases and grants of houses, tithes, rents, lands, 
and possessions, made by his predecessors (it would 
seem improvidently) to the Cistercians, Templars, 
Hospitallers, and to the religious of other orders, as 
well as to secular clerks and laics, though the consent 
of both chapters and the confirmation of the Apos- 
tolic See are stated to have been given to the grants. 
The circumstance is confirmatory of the construction 
put upon the act of his predecessor, in reference to 
the leases of some of the tenants of the sec. On the 
4th of November, 1259, the Pope, by Bull reciting 
the before-mentioned grant in 1216 of the deanery 
of St. Michael of Penkeriz in the diocese of Coventry 
to Henry de Loundres, that same had been confirmed 
by the Holy See, and the said deanery and the pre- 
bends appertaining to its collation so held and filled 
by this prelate and his predecessors for upwards of 
thirty years, that there were no profits or emoluments 
annexed to said deanery, and only the patronage of 



FULR DE SAUNDFORD. 97 

the prebends, solemnly united it to the church of 
Dublin for ever, and appointed that the Archbishop 
of Dublin and his successors should in their own 
persons enjoy the same. 

In 1260 a question, as to the limits of the parishes 
of the Dublin see contiguous to Baltinglas, having 
arisen between this prelate and the fraternity of the 
Cistercian abbey there, was decided by Bull of the 
20th of April in that year, as was a more serious 
claim of tithes payable by the archbishop to the dean 
and chapter " of the church of Dublin.'' In the 
following year, de Saundford took a journey to Rome 
on business relative to his see, the management of 
which during his absence was committed by the Pope 
to the care of the Bishops of Lismore and Water- 
ford.* On this occasion, he obtained from Urban a 
Bull, whereby, after reciting that it w r as long accus- 
tomed in the province of Dublin, that its archbishop, 
his suffragans, officers, and other ecclesiastical judges, 
should have cognizance of contracts and agreements 
ratified by faithful promises or oaths, of complaints 
of defamation, and of injuries done to clerks by lay- 
men, but that recently the king's justiciaries im- 
peded them in the exercise of these rights, protected 
the convicted offenders against ecclesiastical sentences, 
not only in these cases, but in questions of usury, 
adultery, and divorce, and prevented the due exe- 
cution of bequests for pious purposes ; such illegal 
interferences were solemnly prohibited for the future 



* Crede Mihi. 

H 



98 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

under pain of excommunication, or other ecclesias- 
tical censures. While on the other hand, a Bull of 
the same year confirmed the rights of the primacy 
in the Archbishop of Armagh, and gave " licence to 
him and his successors to bear before him the cross, 
which is the standard of Christ, through all the pro- 
vinces and bishoprics subject to him, by metropoli- 
tical and primatial right, as it is well known was 
granted to his predecessors." 

In 1262 the same Pope issued two Bulls to pro- 
tect this prelate in the right of visitation of cer- 
tain churches and chapels, which the Prior of St. 
John of Jerusalem sought to exempt from his juris- 
diction. The archbishop subsequently passed into 
England, where he remained until 1265, when King 
Henry, after the defeat of de Montfort and the other 
barons at the battle of Evesham, sent him back, toge- 
ther with the Bishop of Meath, Lords William de 
Burgo, and Maurice Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald, also 
then sojourning in England, as commissioners, with 
special authority to appease the dissensions that ex- 
isted between the nobles and magnates of Ireland. 

In 1266 the king appears on record, granting 
to " Robert le Provend, Bishop of Dublin, his heirs, 
and their tenants," that their goods should not be 
distrained in any place for debts, wherein they were 
not principals or sureties, unless where the debtors 
were within their power, and that the said Robert or 
his heirs were deficient in doing justice to the cre- 
ditors. This Robert, however, though styled Bishop 
of Dublin, was clearly but a coadjutor to Fulk, whose 






t 



of 






FULK DE SAUNDFORD. 99 



name occurs in contemporaneous and subsequent re- 
cords as archbishop of that province. 

The before-mentioned bull of 1261 it appears, 
had not the effect of controlling, at least as fully as 
was expected by de Saundford, the encroachments of 
the citizens on the ecclesiastical courts and privileges. 
At this time the revenues and support of the churches 
of the diocese consisted, for the most part, in the 
offerings of the congregations on Sundays and holy- 
days, and on occasions of the benedictions of married 
women, and the purifications of those after child- 
birth, all which contributions were publicly made in 
the churches. The mayor and citizens of Dublin, 
however, alleged that this exaction had grown into 
a grievance, and, with the object of correcting its ex- 
cess, they in 1267 made a penal order, that no citi- 
zens should presume to make their offerings more 
than four times in the year, and restrained the num- 
ber attending new-married and child-bed women upon 
these occasions to two, instead of the numerous trains 
that were usually in attendance. They also seized 
the wax candles that were carried on occasions of 
funeral processions, and which had been theretofore 
1 usually given to the churches, and deposited them in 
their own halls ; leaving only two wax-lights to the 
church where the person was buried. They likewise 
' ordered, that no prelate or ecclesiastical j udge within 
the city, should hold plea of usury or of any other 
crime or cause, except what were matrimonial or tes- 
' tamentary, and that they should have no cognizance 
of intestates' goods, which they directed to be paid 

h2 



100 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

into the exchequer ; and further prescribed that 
no citizen, even in causes ecclesiastical, should be 
obliged to appear in judgment out of the limits of the 
city. These arbitrary measures were highly resented 
by the archbishop, who, finding all admonitions 
ineffective by his ordinary authority, promulgated 
the sentence of excommunication against the offend- 
ers, and put the city under an interdict ; a course 
for the maintenance of the privileges of the Church, 
which was approved by Cardinal Octobon, then le- 
gate in London, and who sent his mandate, dated on 
the 28th of February in the same year, to the 
Bishops of Lismore and Waterford, directing them 
solemnly to denounce with bells tolling, and candles 
lighted, the said mayor and citizens as excommuni- 
cated, in all public places within the city and pro- 
vince of Dublin. At length, in the summer follow- 
ing, Sir Robert de Ufford, Lord Justice, and the 
Privy Council interposed in these quarrels, and a 
composition was made between the archbishop and 
the citizens ; the terms of which, as they appear on 
record, were, that if any citizen committed a public 
sin, he should for the first offence pay a fine, if he 
sinned so a second time, and that the crime was enor- 
mous and public, then he should be beaten round the 
church ; if he offended a third time, he should be 
solemnly and publicly beaten before the processions 
made to Christ Church or St. Patrick's, and if, after 
this penance, he should persist in his sin, the officer 
of the archbishop might give notice of it to the mayor 
and bailiffs* who were enjoined to either expel him 



FULK DE SAUNBFORD. 101 

from the city, or beat him through it. It was further 
agreed, that a general inquisition should be made 
once in every year through the metropolis, in relation 
to all public sins ; and that, if great necessity existed 
for so doing, such an inquisition should be held twice 
or three times in one year, but on no account oftener. 
Provided always, that no citizen should be drawn out 
of " the deanery of said city," by any officials of the 
archbishop, but should answer within it to all just 
complaints before his ordinaries. 

About the same time, this prelate erected the 
church of Killuskey, near the town of Wicklow, 
into a prebend, and annexed it to the archdeaconry 
of Glendalough for ever ; by right of which, Hugh 
de Chaddestone, at that time Archdeacon, became en- 
titled to a stall in the choir, a voice in the chapter 
of St. Patrick's Cathedral,* and to all the other 
privileges of a canon. This prelate also purchased 
thirty acres of land, near Tipperkevin, from William 
Syreburn, and annexed them to his see, for the 
profits whereof, John de Saundford, Escheator of 
Ireland, and afterwards, himself, Archbishop of Dub- 
lin, passed his accounts in the exchequer, after the 
death of Fulk, and during the vacancy of the see. 

On the 25th of July, 1270, Prince Edward, to 
whom his royal father had some years previously 
given the sovereignty of all that part of Ireland, 
which was then subjected to English dominion ; 
directed his mandate to his Lord Deputy, and officers 

* Allen's Registry. 



102 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

of justice in Ireland; grounded on information, 
that some miscreants, doubtless, some of those in- 
corrigible felons, whom ecclesiastical censures did 
but exasperate to more mortal offences, had at- 
tempted the life of de Saundford and of his officers, 
and the prince thereby commanded, that whatever 
powers the prelate might require for the exercise of 
his ecclesiastical authority, should be fully granted 
and assured to him, while he at the same time di- 
rected all justices and other officers, to repress any 
invasions or attempts against the liberties of the 
Church. 

On the 6th of May, 1271, Archbishop Fulk died 
in his manor of Finglas ; whereupon his body was 
conveyed to St. Patrick's Church, and there de- 
posited in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
Immediately on his decease, King Henry the Third 
granted to Prince Edward all the issues and profits 
of the archbishopric, in aid of his expenses to the 
Holy Land ; saving, however, knights' fees, ward- 
ships, reliefs, escheats, and advowsons of all ecclesi- 
astical promotions; and he sent a writ to the Es- 
cheator of Ireland, dated the thirteenth of June in 
that year, reciting the above grant, and commanding 
him not to interfere in the receipt thereof, but to 
consign that portion of the revenues to the lawful 
attorneys of Prince Edward, and, if he had thereto- 
fore collected any of such funds, to pay over same to 
the said persons. The king, however, at the same 
time, granted a licence for the election of a successor 
to Fulk ; and on the twenty-ninth of the ensuing 



FULK DE SAUNDFORD. 103 

July, William de la Corner, the Pope's chaplain, and 
the king's counsellor, who, in some years afterwards, 
was promoted to the see of Salisbury, was elected to 
this dignity by the prior and convent of the Holy 
Trinity ; but on the same day, the dean and chapter 
of St. Patrick's made choice of Fromund le Brun, 
the Pope's chaplain, and then Lord Chancellor of 
Ireland, in consequence of which difference of no- 
mination, a tedious controversy ensued between the 
respective electors, which did not terminate until 
1279? when the Pope annulled both appointments. 

In 1272, within two months after his accession to 
the throne, Edward the First committed the custody 
of the temporalities of this see to Thomas Chedworth, 
and authorized him to farm and improve them to the 
king's best advantage, also directing his Chief Jus- 
tice of Ireland to dispose of the revenues of ward- 
ships, and to present to vacant churches, as in the 
right of the crown. In 1273, another recognition 
of Robert, the before-mentioned coadjutor " Bishop 
of Dublin," occurs in a close roll, in which the king, 
at the instance of his sister, the Queen of Scotland, 
granted to Robert, " Bishop of Dublin," residing 
in Scotland, that Robert de Robery (whom the 
bishop had constituted to act as his deputy), might* 
in the name of the bishop, make attorneys to appear 
for him in all his courts, before any justices and 
barons of the exchequer, and in counties, hundreds, 
and other the king's courts, for him or against him 
for seven years, and be exempted from all amercia- 
ments, as for not appearing personally therein. In 



104 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

1275 the king issued a mandate for the better ma- 
nagement and cultivation of the lands belonging to 
this see ; and in the following year the above-men- 
tioned Chedworth had an order from the Exchequer, 
for payment to him of a pension of forty marks per 
annum, out of the revenues of this see, during the 
time he had the custody thereof. At this latter period 
a contest arose, between the king and the prior and 
chapter of the Holy Trinity, as to the right of 
appointing the Archdeacon of Dublin during the 
vacancy of the see ;* and the difference appears to 
have continued, until the elevation of John de Der- 
lington to the dignity, after a vacancy of seven years, 
removed the subject matter of the contest. 

JOHN DE DERLINGTON. 

[Succ. 1279. Ob. 1284.] 

The Pope having, as before mentioned, annulled 
both the elections in 12/1 of William de la Corner 
by the prior and convent of the Holy Trinity, and of 
Fromund le Brun by the dean and chapter of St. 
Patrick's, a tedious and expensive suit was instituted, 
until, at last, the pontiff declared John de Derlington 
the due and lawful archbishop. He was so styled 
from Derlington, in the diocese of Durham, the 
place of his birth ; was a doctor of divinity, a Domi- 
nican friar, confessor to the late King Henry the 
Third, and had been his ambassador to Pope Nicholas 



* Rot in Turr. Lond. 



JOHN DE DEULINGTON. 105 

the Third in 1278.* He was, accordingly, conse- 
crated in Waltham abbey on the 8th of September, 
1279» by John Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted 
by Nicholas Bishop of Winchester, Robert Bishop of 
Bath and Wells, and William Bishop of Norwich ; 
and his writ of restitution to his temporalities is 
dated on the following 28th of April. Matthew 
Paris describes him as a prelate of great authority for 
his learning and wisdom ; but Bale is so unfavourable 
to him, that he calls him a " mercenary hireling, and 
not a shepherd ; that he went to his archbishopric not 
to feed, but to milk and shear his sheep ; and that he 
died, " divina tactus ultione," blasted by divine ven- 
geance. It is certain he was collector of the Peter- 
pence, both in England and Ireland, to the Popes, 
John the Twenty-first, Nicholas the Third, and 
Martin the Fourth, which was, probably, ground 
sufficient to induce Bale to deny him any merit 
whatsoever. The story of his life is, however, so 
imperfectly recorded, that it leaves scarcely more to 
rely upon than the certainty of his death — an event 
which carried him off, by sudden visitation, in Lon- 
don, on the 29th of March, 1284, in the fifth year 
after his consecration, in a Dominican convent of 
which city he was buried. He has given to the 
world " Concordantise magna? Anglicanae," " Ser- 
rnones ad utrumque statum," and " Disceptationes 
Scholasticae." 



* Bullar. Ord. Prajdic. T. i. p. 557- 



106 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

JOHN DE SAUNDFORD. 
[Succ. 1284. Ob. 1294.] 

On the 5th of May after Archbishop Derlington's 
death, the King granted his conge d'elire, on the 
petition of the dean and chapter of St. Patrick's, pre- 
sented by John de Saundford, whom the record calls 
" con-canonicus noster," our fellow canon, and on 
whom the choice of the electors fell. He was a 
native of England, brother of the former prelate of 
that name, dean of St. Patrick's, a Franciscan friar, 
and, for a time, escheator of Ireland. Being canoni- 
cally elected, he was confirmed by the king on the 
20th of July, 1284, and, on the 6th of August follow- 
ing, had his writ for restitution to the temporalities, 
having first, with some difficulty, obtained the Pope's 
confirmation, who, at first, raised some objections to 
the appointment ; but, on de Saundford resigning his 
right to the absolute discretion of the pontiff, Hono- 
rius promoted him to, or rather confirmed him in, 
the dignity, recommending him, by a Bull of 1285, 
to the King's favour, which had, in truth, been pre- 
viously evinced. All interests thus concurring, he 
was consecrated in the church of the Holy Trinity, 
Dublin, on Palm Sunday, 1286. 

In his early life he had come into Ireland, it would 
appear, as vicar-general of his brother Fulk de Saund- 
ford, and was presented by the Baroness of Naas to 
the rectory of Maynooth.* In 1266 he was en- 

* Crecle mihi. 



JOHN DE SAUNDFOUD. 107 

trusted with the absolute management of his brother's 
affairs, and, in some records, is expressly denominated 
his vicar-general. In 1268 he was one of the m edi- 
tors and witnesses of the final concord between that 
>relate and the citizens of Dublin, and, in the following 
year, was the arbitrator of a dispute existing with the 
Prior of Kilmainham relative to the archbishop's visi- 
tatorial power. In 1272 he was appointed escheator of 
Ireland, and, in 1274, was joined in commission with 
the Lord Justice and the Bishop of Meath to administer 
the oath of allegiance, and receive the fealty of all arch- 
bishops, bishops, abbots, clergy, nobles, and others the 
king's subjects of Ireland. In 1 2 79 he was a Justice of 
the King's Bench, and, in 1282, was specially selectedby 
the king to raise money, by loan, from the clergy and 
laity, to be employed in the necessities of the state, 
on account of the insurrection of the Welch.* In 
1283 he had a grant of " wastes" lying in Connaught, 
at the annual rent of £34, and doing service and 
suit at the court of Roscommon ; nor was his influence 
with royalty diminished on his appointment to this 
see. In 1 288, after the death of Stephen de Fulburn, 
he was constituted Lord Justice of Ireland, with an 
allowance of £500 per annum for the support of his 
government; and, on the 7th of March, 1289 5 the 
king granted to him and his successors the right of 
free warren in all his demesne lands of the mountains 
of the county of Dublin ; so that none should enter 
thereon to chase or hunt without the archiepiscopal 
licence, under a penalty of £10 for each offence. 



Rymer's Foedera. 



108 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

In 1291 Pope Nicholas having commanded, that 
a tenth of all ecclesiastical rents, profits, and oblations 
in Ireland, according to their true value, should be 
paid to the King of England, towards the expenses of 
a meditated crusade, this prelate was of those named 
to oversee the collection; and, "because," adds the 
document, "there are various valuations of these 
revenues in that country, we impose it on your con- 
sciences, that, on due consultation in the places to be 
taxed, you study to assess the true and honest value 
thereof;"* such a valuation was, accordingly, made 
in the course of three years, and is yet extant, — that 
of this see is entitled, " Nova taxatio Diocesis Dub- 
liniensis ;" and in it very great alterations were made 
from the former, some being increased, others les- 
sened, and some wholly omitted, according to the new 
circumstances of the times. This estimate is, in a 
legal point of view, the more important, because all 
the taxes, as well to the successive kings as to the 
popes, were regulated by it down to the 20th year of 
the reign of Henry VIII. 

About the year 1293, Archbishop John was sent 
with Anthony, Bishop of Durham, on an embassy to 
the emperor, to treat with him concerning the resti- 
tution of Bourdeaux and the adjacent country of 
Gascony, which had been taken possession of by the 
King of France sometime previously. Having suc- 
cessfully acquitted himself in this negotiation, he re- 
turned into England, but was immediately afterwards 

* Rymer's Foedera ad ann. 



JOHN DE SAUNDFORD. 109 

(in October, 1294,) "seized with a grievous disor- 
ler," says Matthew of Westminster, " and went the 
way of all flesh." Prynne alleges that he died in 
returning from the King of Arragon, to whom he 
had been sent to negotiate some affairs connected 
with the interest of England. His body was, on the 
petition of the canons of St. Patrick's, conveyed into 
Ireland, and on the 20th of February after his death, 
buried in his brother's monument in their church. 
The letter written by the canons upon this occasion, 
beseeching to give him the possession of a burying 
place amongst them, is yet preserved in the Cotton 
library. He was a prelate in great reputation for 
learning, wisdom, and discretion, as the few particu- 
lars which are detailed of his life sufficiently esta- 
blish. 

On his death, the chapters of Christ Church and 
St. Patrick's assembled at the cathedral of the Holy 
Trinity, and chose Adam de Purneis, a canon of the 
Holy Trinity, and vicar of Kilcullen, official of the 
diocese during the vacancy of the see, the custody of 
the temporalities of which the king, by writ* bearing 
date the 20th of October, in the year 1295, granted 
to Richard de Abingdon during pleasure, but re- 
served the profits to be accounted for in the exche- 
quer ; and on the 20th of December following, he 
gave licence to the dean and chapter of St. Patrick's, 
and to the prior and convent of the Holy Trinity, 
to proceed to the election of a new archbishop. They 

* Rot. Pat. 22 Echv. I. 



110 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

had, however, before the licence issued, irregularly- 
elected Thomas de Chadsworth, who was also Dean of 
St. Patrick's to this dignity ; on information of which, 
they were obliged to sue out a new conge d'elire, 
dated 24th of March in the same year (old style), by 
virtue whereof, they unanimously re-elected Chads- 
worth, and submitted such their nomination to the 
king, on the 28th of April, 1296, who, thereupon, 
gave his royal assent, and certified the same to Rome. 
The Pope, however, vacated the election, and ap- 
pointed William de Hothum thereto. 

Immediately previous to this determination of the 
pontiff, the Dean of St. Patrick's, together with the 
Prior of the Holy Trinity, preferred a complaint to 
his holiness of encroachments made by Richard de 
Northampton, Bishop of Ferns, on their right to exer- 
cise the jurisdiction of the archbishop during the 
vacancy of the see ; whereupon Boniface referred the 
matter to the Prior of All Saints, Dublin, who was 
authorized to inquire into the ground of complaint, 
and to see justice done. The see being filled, how- 
ever, the controversy was necessarily terminated. 



WILLIAM DE HOTHUM. 
[Succ. 1297. Ob. 1298.] 

The Pope, having so vacated the election of 
Thomas de Chadsworth, on the 16th of June, 1297, 
by provision confirmed the aforesaid William de Ho- 
thum in the archbishopric ; and, accordingly, on the 






WILLIAM DE HOTHUM. Ill 

8th of December, 1297 5 the king issued his writ* 
reciting the election of Chadsworth, its cassation by 
the Pope, and the appointment of de Hothum ; and, 
thereupon, acquainted the canons of the free chapel 
of Penkeriz (before mentioned in 1216), that he had 
restored Hothum to the temporalities, commanding 
them to obey him as their archbishop. Edward also 
sent a writf to Richard de Abingdon, custodee of the 
temporalities, directing him to give this prelate the 
preference of pre-emption of the ploughs, cattle, and 
stock upon the lands of the see, and another writj to 
the justices, escheators, and sheriffs, requiring them 
to suffer him to enjoy all the liberties and privileges 
which any of his predecessors had enjoyed. The 
business of his life, however, appears to have been 
little associated with the privileges or interests of his 
province. 

He was born in England,§ but educated at Paris, 
where he took the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 
1280, afterwards became a Dominican friar, and was 
twice provincial of that order in England ; on one 
occasion as ambassador at Rome from King Edward 
the Eirst to Pope Boniface the Eighth, he executed 
the trust with great applause, being inferior to none 
for learning, virtue, gravity, integrity, and judgment 
in the management of affairs. The Pope gave him 
a dispensation, not unfrequent at the period, to be 
consecrated by any bishop whom he should select ; 



* Rot. Pat. 25 Edw. I. t lb. X lb. 

§ See De Burgo Hib. Dom. 



112 AllCHBISIIQPS OF DUBLIN. 

Pits and others, however, maintain that lie was con- 
secrated at Rome in 1298, by the Pope himself, and 
that he died on his return ; but Harris considers Wal- 
singham more correct in asserting, that he was conse- 
crated in that year at Ghent in Flanders, by Anthony 
Beak, Bishop of Durham, and with them agree the 
Annals of St. Mary's Abbey. Immediately after his 
consecration, he was recognised as the active organ 
of reconciliation between Philip the Fourth of France 
and Edward the First of England, and ultimately, by 
his discretion and tact, effected a truce between these 
monarchs, which continued for two years. He, there- 
upon, returned to Rome, with the articles of the 
treaty, which the Pope established ; and it was on his 
journey homewards from this mission through Bur- 
gundy, that he fell ill at Dijon, where he died in a 
monastery of his order, on the 27th of August in the 
same year. His body was conveyed into England, 
and buried in a Dominican monastery in London. 

Bale, although he asperses his character and that 
of the Pope who promoted him, on the suggestion 
that he attained his honour by the mediation of gold, 
yet allows, that he was " a man highly extolled by 
the writers of his own order, as a person of a great 
spirit, acute parts, and one who had a singular dex- 
terity in conciliating to himself the favour of men," 
a trait which must have induced his frequent engage- 
ments in state negotiations. He is, also, spoken of 
in high terms of praise by Laurence Pignorius, Se- 
bastian de Olmedo, Fernandez, Fontana, Sincler, 
Possevin, &c. Ware adds, that he was the author of 






WILLIAM DE HOTHUM. 113 



some works of divinity, and of a French oration on 
the king's right to Scotland. 

On the 24th of September after his decease, a 
writ issued to the Treasurer and Barons of the Ex- 
chequer to seize the temporalities of the see, and to 
commit the custody thereof to some faithful person, 
for whose conduct they would be responsible. On 
the 21st of January following, Adam de Balsham, 
Prior of Christ Church, was chosen Archbishop by 
that convent, while the Dean and Chapter of St. 
Patrick's selected their before-mentioned dean, Tho- 
mas de Chadsworth, then one of the Justices of the 
King's Bench ; but neither of these elections was 
approved of by the king ; and, having been made 
without his previous licence, each of these ecclesiasti- 
cal bodies was attached for the contempt. The Dean 
and Chapter of St. Patrick's shewed what was deemed 
sufficient cause for pardon ; but the temporalities of 
the prior were estreated and granted to John, Vicar 
of Lusk.* A lapse having occurred, by reason of this 
contest, the Pope asserted a title to provide for the 
dignity, and, accordingly, nominated Richard de 
Ferings, who had been in 1281, and during the fif- 
teen previous years, Archdeacon of Canterbury,! and 
who, upon this nomination, was consecrated about the 
middle of the year, 1299. 



* Vide Riley's Plac. Pari. p. 296. 

t There are extant, in the Cotton Library, letters of jurisdiction 
between him and the Prior of Canterbury, settled while he was arch- 
deacon there. 

I 



114 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

RICHARD DE FERINGS. 
[Succ. 1299. Ob. 1306.] 

This prelate, immediately after his consecration, 
appears to have made that conveyance of Church 
lands, alluded to by Carte in the introduction to his 
Life of Ormond, whereby, with the consent of the 
Chapters of the Holy Trinity and St. Patrick's, he 
granted to Theobald Fitz Walter Butler of Ireland, 
and to his heirs, the lands of Inchmeholmoc, Kilpoeh, 
and fifteen other townlands, with the churches, 
chapels, advowsons, and all liberties thereto belonging, 
yielding to the archbishop and his successors two 
marks of silver yearly ; to the church of the Holy 
Trinity in Dublin, two pounds of wax at Easter ; and 
to the church of St. Patrick two pounds more in lieu 
of all services and demands. He, nevertheless, en- 
countered some difficulty in obtaining restitution of 
his temporalities, as, when he presented the Pope's 
provisional letters to the king, they were considered 
to contain clauses prejudicial to the royal prerogative. 
He removed the ground of objection, however, by 
an express renunciation of any benefit therefrom, and 
a public declaration that it never was his intention 
to sue forth, do, or prosecute anything that could 
operate to the prejudice of the crown, or in any man- 
ner tend thereto. This renunciation, dated 3.0th 
May, 1300, is of record in the Tower of London. 
The king, thereupon, took his fealty, and, on the fol- 
lowing day, issued his writ of restitution, and, at the 
same time, another writ to the canons of the free 



RICHARD DE FERINGS. 115 

chapel of Penkeriz (of which, as before-mentioned, 
the Archbishops of Dublin were deans), in similar 
terms with that issued in favour of de Hothum, in 

1297. 

Immediately afterwards this prelate applied himself 
to effect a right understanding between his two cathe- 
dral churches, and succeeded in establishing what the 
White Book of Christ Church calls " a final andfull con- 
cord and amicable agreement of their various contro- 
versies and wrangles," which was reduced into writing, 
and strengthened by the common seal of each chapter, 
with a penalty annexed. The heads of the agree- 
ment are to be found in Archbishop Allen's Registry, 
of which the principal were, " That the Archbishops 
of Dublin should be consecrated and enthroned in 
Christ Church — That both churches should be called 
cathedral and metropolitan— That Christ Church, 
as being the greater, the mother, and the elder church, 
should have the precedence in all rights and concerns 
of the see, and that the cross, mitre, and ring of every 
archbishop, in whatever place he died, should be de- 
posited therein ; and lastly, that each church should 
have the alternate right of sepulture of the bodies of 
their archbishops, unless otherwise directed by their 
several wills ; and these articles were, accordingly, 
agreed to in the year 1300. After thus composing, 
as he thought, the jealousies that had existed between 
his cathedrals, the archbishop resided for the most 
>art abroad, having constituted Thomas de Chads- 
worth, whose election to the see the Pope had before 
twice annulled, his vicar-general. 

i 2 



116 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

In 1 302 a writ* issued to the Lord Justice of Ire- 
land, directing that the archbishop's bailiffs should 
have liberty to transmit money to him to England 
for his support — they giving security not to send it 
elsewhere, non obstante any former writ prohibiting 
the exportation of money from Ireland, by means 
whereof the remitting of the archbishop's money had 
theretofore been retarded. In the same year Edmund 
Butler recovered from de Ferings the manor of Holly- 
wood in Fingal with the appurtenances, as mentioned 
in the " History of the County of Dublin." There 
is a record extant in the rolls of parliament, concern- 
ing a journey undertaken in the same year by this 
prelate to Canterbury ; but it contains little more than 
an account of a broil between his attendants and those 
of the Bishop of Ely. In 1303 (28th of January,) 
he was summoned to appear in person at the parlia- 
ment, which should be holden in England next after 
the date of the writ ; and in the same year he consti- 
tuted the churches of Stagonil and Tipperkevin pre- 
bends of St. Patrick's cathedral. 

In 1304 he renewed the privileges granted by 
his predecessors to the Dean and Chapter of St. 
Patrick's, and particularly the exemption of their 
prebendal churches, and the churches of the Economy, 
from visitations of the archdeacon or dean ; and in 
1306 a third valuation having been made of the dig- 
nities and benefices of Ireland, with the object of 
assessing them to the Pope's taxation of one-tenth, 



* Rot. Claus. 30 Edw, I 






RICHARD DE FERINGS. 



117 



similar variations occurred in the assessment, as no- 
ticed in that of 1291 ; and express entries are made 
of benefices as being of no value, where wars had 
left them waste and unprofitable. The estimates of 
the full values of the respective dignities and bene- 
fices of this diocese were as follow : — 



The archbishopric, 700 marks. 

Prebend of Cullen, £40. 

Deanery, 100 marks. 

Precentorship, 40 marks. 

Treasurership, £40. 

Chancellorship, £40. 

Archdeaconry of Dublin, £40. 

Prebend of Swords, £40. 

Vicarage of Swords, 100 shil- 
lings. 

Prebend of James of Spain in 
Lusk, 50 marks. 

Prebend of Richard de Wyn- 
don in Lusk, 50 marks. 

The two Vicarages of Lusk, 
40 marks. 

Prebend of Clonmethan, 20 
marks. 

Prebend of Howth, £23 8s. 8d. 

Prebend of J. Palke in Castle- 
knock, 20 marks. 

Prebend of John de Dene in 
Castleknock, 20 marks. 

Vicarage of Castleknock, 10 
marks. 

Prebend of Rathmichael, 20 
marks. 

Prebend of Newcastle, £20. 



Prebend of Saggard, £10. 
Prebend of Maynooth, £20. 
Portion of the vicarage, 10 

marks. 
Prebend of Yagoestown, 10 

marks. 
Prebend of Dunlavin, £20. 
Prebend of Monmohenock, 10 

marks. 
Prebend of Timothan, £10. 
Prebend of Tipper, £10. 
Prebend of Tipperkevin, £10. 
Vicarage of Tallagh, 5 marks. 
Vicarage of St. Kevin, 5 marks. 
Prebend of Stagonyl, — waste 

by war. 
Archdeaconry of Glendalough, 

10 marks. 
Prebend of Alderg, 114 shil- 
lings. 
Churches of 

St. Kevin, £10. 

Crumlin, £10. 

Castleknock, 20 marks. 

Killnasantan, — waste by war. 

Tallagh, 40 shillings. 

Kilbride, 40 shillings. 

Brenockstown, 60 shillings. 



118 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



Moonderton and Ardscul, £20. 
Rathsallagh, 100 shillings, 
Villa Fraxini, — waste by war. 
Donaghmore in Imail, — waste 

by war. 
Tyrnemach, 20 shillings. 
Rents of the city of Dublin, 

£18 5s. 9d. 
Selyock, 10 shillings. 
Altarages of St. Nicholas in 

St. Patrick's, 100 shillings. 
St. Michael's church, £6. 



St. John's, 100 shillings. 

St. Michan's, £4. 

Grange- Gorman lands, £24. 

Glasnevin lands, £24. 

Clonkene lands, £14 13s. 4d. 

Tullagh land, £6. 

Church and chapel of Clonkene, 

£18 3s. Ad. 
Ballscaddan church, £10. 
Rents there, £28. 
Kilcullen church, £39 13*. 4tf. 



The subject of this memoir, nevertheless, appears 
to have afforded to the affairs of his province but 
little of that sanction and authority, which the pre- 
sence of a resident prelate must necessarily enforce. 
He at length became sensible of this dereliction of 
duty, and was actually on his return from Rome with 
the object of retrieving the injury, when he was 
affected by a sudden illness, of which he died on the 
18th of October, in the year 1306. 

On the 26th of November following, a licence 
issued to the two chapters for electing a new arch- 
bishop ; and, notwithstanding the composition men- 
tioned before as made by de Eerings between his 
cathedrals, the new election revived the contest, and 
in January following, Nicholas Butler, brother of 
Edmund Butler, who was afterwards Earl of Carrick, 
was elected to the vacant dignity by the prior and 
convent of Christ Church, while the dean and chap- 
ter of St, Patrick's made choice of Richard de 



RICHARD DE FERINGS. 119 

Havering, their precentor,*" who was further strength- 
ened by the Pope's provision, the original Bull for 
which yet remains among the archives of Christ 
Church ; while, singular to relate, in the same repo- 
sitory is an original Bull of provision from the same 
Pope (Clement the Fifth), dated at Poictiers, the 
26th of June, in the second year of his pontificate, 
in favour of the rival candidate, Nicholas Butler, and 
which recites the controverted elections. Havering, 
however, under colour of his election and provision, 
enjoyed for four years the profits of the see without 
consecration ; and in 1309 had writ of summons to a 
parliament to be held at Westminster, on the second 
Sunday in Lent, as Bishop elect of Dublin, by which 
title he was also styled by King Edward the Second, 
in a letter to Philip, King of France, dated the 19th 
of June, 1309? and in the royal charter of the follow- 
ing year, confirming to this prelate all the liberties 
and free customs appertaining to the see, he is named 
** Richard, Archbishop of Dublin, elect and con- 
firmed." In the same year John Wogan, Justiciary 
of Ireland, was ordered to arrest the Templars and 
imprison them in the Castle of Dublin, to be forth- 
coming to answer the Archbishop elect of Dublin or 
his vicar, and the other inquisitors, in such matters 
as might be there objected to them ; the archbishop 
receiving an authority to that effect in similar terms, 
both which last documents are recorded in the Tower 
of London. In 1310 he erected the church of Alderg 
into a prebend, but at the close of that year, under 

* Rolls of Parliament, vol. i. p. 208. 



120 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

the influence of a dream, as it was reported, he 
voluntarily resigned his see, upon which the king, 
by writ* of 6th January 13 10, directed his justiciary 
to take charge of the temporalities, immediately after 
which, according to the Annals published by Cam- 
den, Alexander de Bicknor was on St. Patrick's day, 
1310, elected archbishop by the unanimous voice of 
both chapters ; but, notwithstanding this election, 
John Lech, chaplain and almoner to King Edward 
the Second, succeeded by the favour of that prince. 



JOHN LECH, 
[Succ. 1310. Ob. 1313.] 

John Lech, the successor of Havering, had been 
previously, in the year 1309 5 elected to the bishopric 
of Dunkeld, in Scotland, of which church he was a 
canon ; and, on the 28th of August in that year, was 
earnestly recommended to the pope for his confirma- 
tion, by the king, who was indeed so earnest in 
his behalf, as to write likewise to six of the cardinals 
for their interest with his holiness on this occasion, 
and to the auditor and advocate of the court of Rome. 
On the 14th of December following, Edward ap- 
pointed him his proctor, to take into his custody 
all the books, vestments, plates, and other ornaments 
of the chapel of Matthew, late Bishop of Dunkeld, 
which fell to him on the death of the said Matthew, 
according to the custom of Scotland. This appears 
to have been the first assumption, as of supremacy, 



* Kymer's Fcedera, 



JOHN LECH. 121 

after the conquest of Scotland by King Edward the 
First ; and it was met by a counter-election of 
William Sinclair to that see, by the loyal Scots, in 
the allegiance of Bruce. This appointment was for* 
a time violently opposed by King Edward, but at 
length, by the perseverance of Sir Henry Sinclair, 
Laird of Roslin, and brother of William, the English 
monarch was induced to write to the Pope, in favour 
of the elect bishop, on the 8th of February, 1312, 
having previously obtained the Pope's ratification 
and appointment of Lech to this better preferment, 
as appears by the royal letter of thanks dated on the 
5th of April, 1311. On this advancement of Lech, 
whom Edward, in his letter, calls Bishop elect of 
Dunkeld, the royal mandate, bearing date the 20th 
of July in the same year, issued to Richard de 
Havering, who, after his resignation, had been made 
custodee of the temporalities during the vacancy, 
to hand them over to the new prelate, who had, ac- 
cording to custom, renounced all prejudicial clauses 
in the Pope's provision, and submitted himself en- 
tirely to his favour ; while, at the same time, a further 
writ for restitution of his temporalities was directed 
to John Wogan, then Lord Justice of Ireland. In 
the same year, and last mentioned month, (July,) on 
the application of this prelate, Pope Clement the 
Fifth issued his bull for founding a University 
for scholars in Dublin, but this design, so credi- 
table to the memory of Lech, was not destined to 
be then effectuated, the attention of its originator 

*Rymer 1 s Foedera. 



122 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

having been unhappily diverted by the unbecoming 
controversy concerning the primacy, which had rested 
since 1261, but was revived by him. Walter Jorse, 
then Archbishop of Armagh, thereupon petitioned 
the king, and had the usual permission to appear in 
parliament by his attorneys for the trial of the ques- 
tion. Accordingly, in a parliament held at Kil- 
kenny before the Lord Justice Wogan, these prelates 
warmly urged their respective claims ; Jorse, how- 
ever, in the November following, withdrew any 
further opposition on his part, and, although it was 
sought to be renewed by Jorse's brother and successor, 
Roland Jorse, in the remarkable manner mentioned 
in the " History of the County of Dublin" at 
" Howth ;" yet, on the utter failure of his attempt 
at that time, he likewise desisted from asserting the 
claim. 

At the close of the year 1312, Archbishop Lech 
was constituted Lord Treasurer of Ireland, soon after 
which, on the 10th of August, 1313, he died, but 
neither of his cathedrals, notwithstanding the pre- 
vious arrangement, was destined to receive the body 
of the prelate, which was interred at Westminster, 
in the middle of the chancel of the abbey. Im- 
mediately on his decease, the prebend of Cullen 
was ordered to be sequestered on account of certain 
sums due by him to the Pope, and which William 
Lech, his treasurer, had neglected to pay ;* while, 
on the 29th of October following, the king issued a 
writ to the sheriff of York, to seize all the goods and 



* Orig. Archiv. Cath. St. Trin. 



ALEXANDER DE B1CKN0R. 123 

chattels of the said prelate, which were within his 
bailiwick on the day of his death, for divers debts 
due to the crown. 

In Ireland, in the mean time, the usual contest 
ensued between the cathedrals for the appointment 
of his successor, one party nominating Walter Thorn- 
bury, then chantor of St. Patrick's, and Chancellor 
of Ireland, while the other declared for Alexander 
de Bicknor, the descendant of an English family 
very distinguished in the time of Edward the First, 
and himself then Prebendary of Maynooth and 
Treasurer of Ireland ; Walter, soon after his election, 
took shipping for France, where the Pope then held 
his court ; but, on the night of his departure, a storm 
arose, and he and 156 other passengers were all cast 
away ; whereupon, as if heaven had promulgated its 
judgment, de Bicknor's election was no longer 
opposed. 

ALEXANDER DE BICKNOR. 
[Sue. 1317. Ob. 1349.] 

Alexander de Bicknor having been, as before 
mentioned, elected, and thus far established in his 
high situation, by the death of Walter Thornbury, 
took a journey to Lyons with the king's letters, dated 
the 29th of January, 1314,* earnestly recommending 
him to the Pope as "a man of profound judgment, 
high morality, deep learning, strict integrity, and 



* Rymer's Foed. vol. ii, p. 241. 






124 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

withal the greatest circumspection in spiritual and 
temporal affairs." His confirmation was, neverthe- 
less, postponed, in consequence of his sovereign re- 
quiring his personal services. Accordingly, on the 
27th of May in the same year, Edward the Second 
joined him in a commission with Raymund Subirani 
and Andrew Sapiti, to transact some secret affairs of 
consequence, in relation to his foreign dominions, 
with the cardinals attending the Pope at Avignon, 
to twenty-four of whom he wrote special letters upon 
this occasion. At last Pope John the Twenty-first 
confirmed his appointment to this see, " upon the 
score of his great learning and conspicuous birth," 
and he was afterwards consecrated at Avignon, al- 
though not until the 22nd of July, 1317? by Nicholas 
de Prato, Cardinal of Ostium. The Bulls of his con- 
firmation were read and published in Christ Church, 
Dublin, (where they are still preserved), on the fol- 
lowing feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin ; 
immediately previous to which, the guardian of the 
spiritualities of this see had letters of credence from 
the king, and a request of aid towards the war against 
Bruce and the Scots. 

In the first year of his appointment, King Edward 
granted to this prelate the liberty of acquiring lands, 
tenements, advowsons, &c. in Ireland, to the value of 
£200 yearly, excepting such as were held in fee of 
the crown, to hold to him and his successors for ever; 
and in the same year Pope John the Twenty-second 
wrote to him, as also to the Archbishop of Cashel, 
and Dean of Dublin, to excommunicate Robert Bruce 



ALEXANDER DE BICKNOR. 125 

and his followers, and likewise Edward his brother, 
if they did not render satisfaction and make restitu- 
tion for the ravages, murders, robberies, and burnings 
of churches committed throughout the kingdom by 
their adherents.* The pontiff then also issued his 
mandate to the same individuals, to proceed by inqui- 
sition against the order of mendicants, and all who 
had presumed to alienate the affections of the people 
of Ireland from their true prince, King Edward, or 
who should, by open preaching or private cabals, dis- 
pute the right of the crown of England over the sub- 
jects of that kingdom. f Yet, even this important 
accession of authority did not induce de Bicknor to 
visit his see, nor did he take upon him its actual 
government until that of the whole island was super- 
added. He arrived as Archbishop of Dublin and 
Lord Justice of Ireland on the 9th of October, 1318, 
and was received both by the clergy and people with 
great acclamations of joy. On the 10th of Novem- 
ber following, he was summoned with the prelates 
and nobles to attend a parliament at Lincoln, " but," 
say the Lords' committee on the Peerage, " on what 
ground the writ to the Archbishop of Dublin was 
issued, the committee have not discovered."! It 
might, possibly, have been in right of the manor of 
Penkeriz in England, before mentioned as conferred 
upon de Loundres and his successors. In the same 
year he had a very full confirmation of the lands of 

the see as in the grant enumerated ;§ in 1318 was 

, . — . — __ — _ — _____ — . 

* Rymer's Foedera. f lb. X First Report, p. 276. 

§ Rot. in Turr. Lond. 






126 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

twice re-summoned to a parliament at Lincoln, and, 
on the 8th of June in the same year, received the 
royal intimation that the parliament, so summoned 
and prorogued, was revoked in consequence of the 
invasion of the Scots. In two days afterwards he was 
present in the green chamber in the palace of West- 
minster, when the great seal was surrendered by the 
Bishop of Winchester ; and on the 9th of August in 
the same year, assented on the part of the king to the 
treaty with the Earl of Lancaster, imposing restric- 
tions on the royal authority, and joined in guarantee- 
ing the same.* 

In 1320 he founded a university in St. Patrick's 
church, Dublin, which was confirmed by the authority 
of Pope John the Twenty-second, and public lectures 
were established, but, in the deficiency of the endow- 
ment, this project again failed to be effective. His rules 
for the government of this infant seminary may be seen 
in Ware's Antiquities, p. 243. The professors of theo- 
logy elected on its institution were two Dominican 
friars and one Franciscan. f Two years afterwards he 
constituted the church of Inisboyne a prebend in 
St. Patrick's cathedral, and in the same year the 
Pope imposed upon the clergy of Ireland, an assess- 
ment of two years' tenths on all ecclesiastical bene- 
fices for the use of the king. In 1323 Archbishop 
de Bicknor was sent ambassador to France by the 
parliament of England, together with Edmund of 
Woodstock, Earl of Kent, King" Edward the Second's 



Parl y . Writs. f De Burgo Hib. Dom. p. 85. 



ALEXANDER DE BICKNOR. 127 

younger brother,* but his negotiations were on this 
occasion unsuccessful ; nevertheless, in the following 
year he was again joined in commission with the 
before-mentioned Earl of Kent, and William Weston, 
doctor of laws, to reform the state and government 
of the Duchy of Aquitain, and also to treat of a mar- 
riage between the king's eldest son, Edward, (after- 
wards King Edward the Third,) and the daughter of 
the King of Arragon.f On this occasion, having 
made communications to the Pope relative to the 
minor sees of Ireland, his holiness directed that such 
small Irish bishoprics, as did not exceed in annual 
value £20, £40, or £60 sterling, and which were 
governed by natives, who by themselves and their 
relatives were exciting discord in said land, should 
be united to the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees of 
well known cities, an arrangement which the king 
confirmed. J In the ensuing year, however, de Bick- 
nor fell greatly under the king's displeasure for being 
instrumental in causing the surrender of the town 
and castle of La Royalle in Aquitain to its French 
besiegers, when it was considered it might have been 
defended, and for falsely charging the king's cham- 
berlain, Hugh Despenser, with treason. Of these 
offences the king by letter, dated the 28th of May, 
1325, made a heavy complaint to the Pope, entreat- 
ing his holiness to banish this prelate from his king- 
dom and dominions, and to have another appointed 



* Walsingham Hypodig. Neustriae. 

t Rymer Foed. vol. ii. p. 573. % Id. 554. 



128 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

to his situation ; while he adds, what was perhaps 
the real origin of the royal displeasure, that the arch- 
bishop had mismanaged the crown revenues in Ire- 
land, was greatly in arrear, and had likewise so 
encumbered the property of the church that it could 
never rise again.* 

In 1326 he appears amongst the prelates and 
barons of England, who met at Bristol on the occa- 
sion of the king's son being appointed guardian of 
the realm, which his father had abandoned in com- 
pany with Hugh le Despenser the younger and 
other enemies of the State.f In the following year, 
the profits of this see were in the king's hands, and 
a writ issued to the treasurer and chamberlains of the 
exchequer, authorizing disbursements out of its reve- 
nues in order to maintain the war against the rebels ; 
probably this was in satisfaction for the arrears alleged 
to be due by de Bicknor during his treasurership ; 
while a petition of the prelate, preserved in the Rolls 
of Parliament, suggests that these arrears were not 
incurred in such a wasteful or discreditable manner 
as his enemies would insinuate. A tax it appears had 
been imposed on the benefices of Ireland in the time 
of Edward the Second, according to an ancient valu- 
ation, and this archbishop was appointed to collect 
and be accountable for it. He pleaded, however, 
that by wars and otherwise these benefices were not 
of the profit formerly set down, and wished to pass 
his accounts according to the true values. He was 

* Rymer's Foedera, vol. ii. p. 600. t Ib - P- 6 46. 



ALEXANDER DE BICKNOR. 129 

kept, however, to the old estimates, and his revenues 
were sequestered for their proportionate discharge. 
The Pope gave a marked recognition of the justice 
of the archbishop's accounts, by appointing him col- 
lector in 1330 of the pontifical tax, but at the same 
time instructing him to exempt therefrom all small 
benefices, not exceeding the value of six marks yearly. 
About the same period, Richard Ledred, Bishop 
of Ossory, having prosecuted some persons who were 
accused of heresy, they rose against him and kept 
him in confinement during seventeen days, until, in 
consequence, obliged to fly his diocese, they took 
shelter in that of de Bicknor, who, it would appear, 
protected them from further prosecution. Ledred 
would thereupon have appealed to Rome, but found 
considerable difficulty even in getting out of Ireland, 
in consequence of the steps taken by de Bicknor to 
prevent him. He did, however, ultimately pass into 
France, where it would seem he was detained by the 
power of King Edward. In. this exile he was forced 
to remain nine years, and the profits and jurisdiction 
of his see were seized by this archbishop, until the 
Pope was obliged, as hereafter mentioned, to suspend 
his metropolitical power over Ledred's diocese, an 
interdict which continued until the death of de Bick- 
nor.* In 1331 occurred the devastation and plunder 
of his lands at Tallagh, as more appropriately men- 
tioned at that locality in the " History of the County 
of Dublin." In the close of the same year, the king 

* Wadding's Annals, vol. viii. p. 419. 

K 



130 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIX. 

wrote in his favour to the Pope, seeking to induce his 
Holiness to discredit the assertions of Ledred in refe- 
rence to the dispute between them. In the following 
year de Bicknor annexed the church of Wicklow and its 
two appendant chapels, with the consent of its patrons, 
to the deanery of Glendalough. On the 8th of May, 
1335, the king directed a mandate to him and others 
of Ireland, to accelerate a subsidy and muster in aid 
of the war against the Scotch ;* and in the same year 
this prelate held a visitation in the diocese of Ossory, 
which, as Clyn says in his Annals, no metropolitan had 
visited for forty years before. His motive on this 
occasion has been already explained, and the conse- 
quent withdrawal of the see from metropolitan au- 
thority by the Pope. In 1336 he had a royal licence 
to acquire lands, &c. for the see to the value of £200, 
in similar terms to that granted to him in 1317. 

In 1337 Sir John Charleton, Lord Justice, held 
a parliament in St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, on which 
occasion the Archbishop of Armagh, having been 
summoned, made preparation for his attendance, and 
insisted on carrying his crosier erect before him, but 
was prevented from so appearing by this prelate and 
his clergy, although the king had directed his man- 
date prohibiting any such opposition, and had spe- 
cially ordered the sheriffs and other ministerial officers 
to avert it.f The prelate of Armagh, thereupon, 
caused the bull of Pope Urban, mentioned at 1261, 
to be exemplified under the great seal of Ireland in 



Rymer's Foedera, vol. ii. p. 905. f lb. p. 1008. 



ALEXANDER DE BICKNOR. 131 

the November of the same year, but it does not ap- 
pear that he took any further steps in prosecution of 
the business. In the same year de Bicknor was au- 
thorized by a royal commission to transact certain 
arduous affairs in and about Mullingar, as well with 
the Bishop of Meath as other noblemen, the faithful 
subjects of the county of Meath, to inquire concern- 
ing all traitors and their abettors, to establish peace 
there in the best mode attainable, and for that pur- 
pose to array a militia from amongst the inhabitants, 
and to punish those impeding the discharge of such 
duties.* 

In July, 1339? he received the royal orders to 
repair his fortifications at Castlekevin, and was re- 
quired to appear forthwith before the king's council 
in England, to give information on the state of affairs 
in Ireland. In 1347 he obtained a formal pardon 
from the crown, in reference to his collection of the 
tax before alluded to, or in the harsh, and it would 
seem unjustifiable language of the licence, " for 
sundry false writs and acquittances, which he had put 
into his treasurer's accounts in deceit of the king,"f 
and in 1348 the king wrote in his favour to Cardinal 
Audomar, relative to his right to be exempted from 
any subjection to Armagh. J In the latter year, this 
prelate presided at a synod held in Dublin, the acts 
of which are preserved in the second volume of Wil- 
kins's Concilia (ad ann.) They enforced the pay- 
ment of tithes to mother church; prohibited the ab- 

* Rot. Turr. Berming. t Rot. in Turr. Lond. % Rymer. 

k2 



132 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

straction or injury of ecclesiastical property ; the 
interference of the regular clergy in parochial duties ; 
reserved absolution in cases of conspiracy, perjury, 
false-witness bearing, and homicide to the suffragan 
alone; regulated the proceedings in ecclesiastical suits; 
prohibited beneficed clergy from being the bailiffs or 
seneschals of laymen, and rural deans from entertain- 
ing suits matrimonial; directed that the offerings at 
dependant chapels should be contributed to the mo- 
ther church; that monks should not be executors 
except under prescribed regulations; that the pro- 
perty of testators or intestates should be fairly distri- 
buted ; exhorted all to loyalty and peace ; enforced 
clerical morality and ecclesiastical jurisdiction; inter- 
dicted the farming of any spiritual preferment, or the 
denial of the rights of the Church by reason of debts 
due to it ; enforced the observance of the festivals of 
St. Patrick, St. Brigid, St. Canice, St. Lazarian, St. 
Edan, St. Laurence, &c. &c. 

In 1349 having obtained <i grant of the manor of 
Coolmine in the parish of Saggard, from Geoffrey 
Crumpe, subject to rent and services to the chief 
lord, he settled it for the maintenance of certain 
chantries in the cathedral of St. Patrick's, adding for 
the same endowment several houses and gardens near 
the palace of St. Sepulchre and in the parish of St. 
Kevin, which had previously been assigned to the uses 
of hospitality and reception of strangers.* The contest 
relative to the primacy was renewed in this year, more 



*Dign. Dec. p. 172, 



ALEXANDER DE B1CKN0R. 133 

vehemently than ever, between this prelate and Fitz 
Ralph the celebrated Archbishop of Armagh. The 
latter, being supported by the royal authority,* en- 
tered Dublin with the cross erect before him, lodged 
in the city and continued in it three nights, openly 
read and proclaimed the privileges of his province 
and the bulls of his primacy, in the presence of the 
Lord Justice of Ireland, the Prior of Kilmainham, 
and such of the peers as were then in town, by whose 
influence, however, he was sent back to Drogheda, 
whither many, who had resisted him, followed in the 
terror of ecclesiastical censures, until in time they 
obtained forgiveness. 

On the 14th of July in the same year, de Bicknor 
died, having governed this see almost thirty-two years. 
Ware conjectures that he was buried in St. Patrick's 
church, adding, in reference to his character, that 
" he was no way inferior to any of his predecessors, 
either in point of wisdom or learning ;" while Harris 
mentions that there is extant in the Registry of Mary's 
Abbey, an account of a remarkable sermon preached 
by him in Christ Church against sloth and idleness, 
wherein he bitterly complained of the mischiefs aris- 
ing from the stragglers and beggars, that infested the 
city and suburbs of Dublin, and inveighed warmly 
against every one that would not exercise some trade 
or calling every day more or less. His sermon had 
such influence, that the then- mayor of Dublin warmly 
adopted its views, and exerted all his authority to en- 

* See Rymer's Fcedera, vol. iii. pp. 190, 191, 192. 



134 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

force diligence and industry throughout the city. 
" He would not suffer an idle person to beg within 
his liberties, but only those who spun and knitted as 
they went to and fro, which kind of exercise even 
the begging friars were obliged to imitate, in the 
apprehension of the archbishop's or the lord mayor's 
censures."* 

At the commencement of the year 1350, but be- 
fore de Bicknor's successor was appointed, the king 
renewed his applications to Cardinal Audomar, re- 
questing him to intercede with the Pope, to adjust 
the claim of primacy between the provinces of Ar- 
magh and Dublin. 



JOHN DE ST. PAUL. 
[Succ. 1350. Ob. 1362.] 

John de St. Paul, prebendary of Donnington in 
the Cathedral of York,f and Canon of Dublin, was 
by provision of the Pope advanced to this archbishop- 
ric, on the 12th of September, 1350, soon after 
which, the king confirmed his right of patronage in 
sundry benefices, J and, on the 8th of December in the 
same year, interdicted the Archbishop of Armagh 
from raising his cross within the province of Dub- 
lin ;§ de St. Paul was also appointed Chancellor of 
Ireland, with a salary of £40 per annum, an office 
which he enjoyed during six years. In 1351 Pope 

* Mason's St. Patrick's Cathedral, p. 135. 

t Willis's Cath. vol. i. p. 128. \ Rot. in Turr. Lond. 

§ Allen's Reg. f. 32. 



JOHN DE ST. PAUL. 135 

Clement the Sixth armed him with a commission, to 
make inquiry as to all those before mentioned as 
accused of heresy, who had fled from the prosecution 
of Richard Ledred, Bishop of Ossory, into the dio- 
cese of Dublin, and had been protected by Alex- 
ander de Bicknor, the late archbishop, and to bring 
them to due punishment according to the canons,* 
and he thereupon further restored the metropolitan 
jurisdiction of Dublin over Ossory. In the same 
year, this prelate held a synod in Christ Church, the 
constitutions and canons of which are preserved in 
Wilkins's Concilia. They enforced the observance 
of the festivals of the Conception, and of St. Anne 
the mother of the Blessed Virgin, interdicted clan- 
destine marriages, confirmed the immunities of the 
Church, directed the observance of Good Friday 
as a feast and holiday, genuflection at the sacred 
name of Jesus, the reverential bowing at the " Gloria 
Patri," and the due publication of ecclesiastical cen- 
sures in parish churches. He also about this time 
procured a revocation of the king's letters thereto- 
fore granted to the primate, and a stay of the exer- 
cise of the primacy within the province of Dublin. 
The king, in his letter of revocation, suggested, that 
the letters granted to the primate had been falla- 
ciously obtained, by concealing the truth to the great 
prejudice of this see; and he commanded the chancel- 
lor to issue writs as often as there should be occasion, 
and to have public proclamation made, that nobody 

* Wadding's Annals, vol. viii. p. 419. 



136 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

under peril of life or limb should act to the contrary ; 
while he likewise directed the justices, officers, and 
ministers to arrest and imprison all offenders in the 
premises. Fitz Ralph, however, still insisted on 
the rights of his church, and this prelate obtained 
other letters patent from the king, dated 12th of 
May, 1352, forbidding more strictly any assump- 
tion of the Archbishop of Armagh's power in this 
province, permitting him, however, to appear by 
his proctors, at such parliaments as might be held 
within it, without being subjected to any amercia- 
ments or molestation, as for not attending in per- 
son.* 

About the year 1357? the king issued a writ, 
authorizing de St. Paul to constitute perpetual vicars 
in all dignities and prebends of royal patronage 
within his archbishopric, with certain proportions of 
greater or lesser tithes and other revenues for their 
support, and to enforce their perpetual residence ; 
he had also, in the same year, licence to appropriate 
the advowson of the church of Stackallan, to the 
vicars of St. Patrick's Cathedral,f and obtained a 
general exemplification and confirmation of all his 
liberties and courts. In the following year, he was 
appointed by the crown a privy councillor, the lord 
deputy at the same time receiving a royal order to 
take him to his council, and to adhere as far as pos- 
sible to his suggestions ;J and his first earnest advice, 



* Rymer's Foedera, vol. iii. p. 248. t Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. 

% Rymer's Foedera, vol. iii. pp. 432 and 433. 



JOHN DE ST. PAUL. 137 

that the lords of lands, situated near the marches of 
the pale, should be compelled to sojourn on their 
estates, and fortify and improve them,* evinces the 
soundness of the king's recommendation. 

In 1360 he was one of the three whom the king 
appointed to explore for, and manage when disco- 
vered, such mines of gold and. silver as the writ 
recites " were understood to be abundant" in various 
parts of Ireland, and where very great wealth and 
profit might be derived to the state. t In 1361 he 
had an especial writ of summons, to a great council 
to be held in Dublin,J on which occasion he laboured, 
with his usual good sense and judgment, to effect 
a general amnesty and pardon of such of the Irish 
and English as were then opposed to the govern- 
ment^ and to so soften their jealous and hostile 
natures to kinder and more conciliatory intercourse. 
In the same year he had a confirmation to him and 
his successors, of a former grant of King Edward 
the First, conferring the right of free warren on his 
lands. The extent of his patronage was likewise 
confirmed, || and he had a grant, from Simon Luttrel, 
of the advowson of the church of Stackallan, with 
certain other premises there, rendering to the Baron 
of Slane the services due thereout. 

Having sat in this see about thirteen years, he 
died on the 9th of September, 1362, and was buried 
in Christ Church, under a marble monument before 



* Rymer's Foedera, vol. iii. p. 434. f lb. p. 482. J lb. p.. 612. 
§ Rot. Claus. in Cane. Hib. || Rot. in Turr. Lond, 



138 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

the high altar, on which were inscribed these words : 
" Ego Johannes de S. Paulo, quondam Archiepisco- 
pus Dubliniae, credo quod Redemptor meus vivit, et 
in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum, et iterum 
circumdabor pelle mea et in carne mea videbo Deum 
salvatorem meum." Job. This prelate much en- 
larged and beautified the church of the Holy Trinity, 
having built the choir at his own charge, and did 
many other acts of favour to the fraternity, for which 
he was commemorated in an office of nine lessons.* 



THOMAS MINOT. 
[Succ. 1363. Ob. 1375.] 

Thomas Minot succeeded by the Pope's provi- 
sion, as his predecessor had done, having been Pre- 
bendary of Mullaghiddart, Treasurer of Ireland, and 
for a time, also, escheator of that kingdom. He was 
consecrated on Palm Sunday, in 1363, a document 
of which year is extant, detailing very fully the 
temporal possessions of this see. 

In 1365, the primatial controversy Was renewed 
between him and Milo Sweetman, Archbishop of 
Armagh, so warmly, that King Edward the Third 
thought it necessary to interpose again. He ac- 
cordingly required, that the matter should be adjusted 
in friendship between them, and that, according to 
the example of the prelates of Canterbury and York, 
both should bear up their crosiers in each other's 

* Book of Obits of Christ Church. 



THOMAS MINOT. 139 

provinces, without any interruption, as is evident from 
many of the king's writs in this cause, and especially 
from his letters directed to Minot, and to the Arch- 
bishop of Armagh, both dated the 9th of June, 1365. 
To which royal suggestions, Milo replied, that in 
obedience to the writ, he had personally appeared 
on two days, to treat with the Archbishop of Dublin 
upon the confines of his province; but, that the 
latter, though having notice, did not appear, and on 
the last day sent his proctor, who demanded that 
he, the Archbishop of Armagh, should obey the in- 
junctions of the king in every particular, and es- 
pecially in the mutual bearing up of the cross in each 
other's province, "which," says he, "I could not 
agree to for the following reasons. First, as by 
reason of the shortness of the time I could not have 
the advice of my dean and chapter. Second, as in 
evidence of my primatial privileges, I had by com- 
mon law by Popes' bulls, and Kings' concessions, 
the right of erecting my cross in the province of 
Dublin, and in all other provinces of the kingdom. 
Third, that concerning the primatial right, and 
carrying the cross in the diocese of Dublin, there 
hath been a controversy depending for many years, 
and still remains undecided in the Court of Rome, 
but no controversy concerning his carrying the cross 
in my dominions. Fourth, that every Archbishop 
of Armagh hath, or ought to have, by right and 
ancient custom, three archbishops in Ireland subject 
to him, viz. Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, the latter 
of whom contended upon this matter, and my pre- 



140 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

decessor had a judicial sentence against him in the 
Court of Rome, and obtained a bull from the apos- 
tolic see, that he might by primatial right visit the 
province of Tuam every five years, which bull I have 
in my custody ; and he therefore concluded, by 
praying the king's excuse for not complying with 
his writ in that particular, and desiring that no such 
writ should for the future issue out of his chancery. 
On the third of October following, Lionel, Duke of 
Clarence, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, issued a writ 
to the sheriff of Dublin, dated at Kilkenny, com- 
manding him to warn the Archbishop of Dublin to 
appear before him at Castledermot, on the Tuesday 
after St. Luke's day, there to answer for the afore- 
said contempt, in not meeting and agreeing with the 
Archbishop of Armagh. The matter, however, pro- 
ceeded no farther at that time. 

In 1366, the revenues of the precentor of St. 
Patrick's having been much reduced by the invasion 
of the Irish from the mountains, this prelate united 
to that dignity the church of Kilmactalway, reserving 
to himself and his successors two marks for proxies at 
the visitation, and half a mark pension to the Dean 
of Dublin, requiring at the same time that service 
should be performed there by a sufficient curate. 
This addition, says Allen, (Regist. f. 201,) was for 
the purpose of enabling the dean to live hospitably, 
give alms, and answer the expenses and charges of 
his office. About the year 1370, Minot repaired 
part of St. Patrick's church, which had been de- 
stroyed by an accidental fire, and built a very high 



THOMAS MINOT. 141 

steeple of hewn stone, in reference to which an an- 
cient Registry of St. Patrick's cathedral has the fol- 
lowing curious notice : — " After the burning of St. 
Patrick's church, sixty straggling and idle fellows 
were taken up, and obliged to assist in repairing the 
church and building the steeple, who, when the work 
was over, returned to their old trade of begging, but 
were banished out of the diocese in 1376 by Arch- 
bishop de Wikeford." Their names are inserted in 
the Registry. The archbishop felt so gratified at the 
structure which he thus completed, that he afterwards 
bore on his seal the device of a bishop holding a 
steeple in his hand. It may be here remarked of the 
armorials of this archi episcopal see, that it bears 
sapphire, a pastoral staff in pale, ensigned with a cross 
pattee topaz, surrounded by a pall silver, edged and 
fringed gold, charged with five crosses pattee fitchy 
diamond. 

In 1373 he is stated to have been one of those, 
who advised the customs and assessments imposed, 
and other arbitrary measures enforced by William de 
Windsor, Lord Deputy,* and in the same year was 
summoned to attend a great council to be held in 
Dublin, together with sufficient proctors for his dean 
and chapter and the clergy of his diocese.f In the 
following year he had licence to erect the church of 
Rathsallagh into a prebend, and in 1375 had the 
royal mandate to attend a council summoned to con- 



* Rymer's Foedera, vol. iii. pp. 977, 978, and 979. 
t Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. 



142 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

sider and provide against the hostilities of the O'Briens 
of Thomond, who with a great force invaded Mini- 
ster,* but in the June of that year he died in London ; 
whereupon, the king committed the custody of the 
temporalities of this see to Stephen, Bishop of Meath, 
to hold during the vacancy. 






ROBERT DE WIKEFORD. 
[Succ. 1375. Ob. 1390.] 

Robert de Wikeford, of the ancient family of 
Wikeford Hall, in Essex, Archdeacon of Winchester, 
Doctor of the Civil and Canon Law of the University 
of Oxford, and for a time Fellow of Merton College, 
was advanced to this see by a provision from Pope 
Gregory the Ninth, dated at Avignon, on the 12th 
of October, 1375, before the close of which year he 
was consecrated. In the Easter following he had 
restitution of the temporalities, but his writ for that 
purpose does not bear date until the 30th of January, 
1376, when he had performed all the previous requi- 
sites. He was in great favour with King Edward 
the Third, and employed by him in many affairs of 
importance before his advancement to this see. In 
particular, in 1370, he was commissioned to treat with 
Wenceslaus, Duke of Brabant, for the entertainment 
of that prince and his army in pay during the wars ; 
in 1371 was sent ambassador, in conjunction with 
others, to the Earl of Flanders, in which commission 



* Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. 



ROBERT DE WIKEFORD. 143 

he is described as a doctor of both laws.* In 1373, 
being then constable of the castle of Bourdeaux, he 
was employed to treat of a league, offensive and de- 
fensive, with Peter, King of Arragon, and on the 12th 
of April, in the same year, was joined in commission 
with Thomas Felton, Seneschal of Aquitain, to take 
possession of that principality, then surrendered to 
the king by his eldest son, Prince Edward, to whom 
he had previously granted it for life. De Wikeford 
was at the same time appointed one of the commis- 
sioners to hear appeals therein,f but he did not con- 
tinue long in this office, the king having occasion for 
his services elswhere. In the year 1375, a little be- 
fore his advancement to this see, he was condemned 
in a suit prosecuted against him by Ivo Beaustan, 
before Sir Guy de Bryan and Edmund Mortimer, 
Earl of March, then the king's judges in Aquitain, 
concerning the right to a prisoner, and without cita- 
tion, confession, or conviction, all requisite forms 
being pretermitted, was, although absent and in the 
king's service, adjudged to pay and render 7625 
franks, 200 marks of silver, two good coursers, and 
one hackney. From this judgment, however, he 
appealed to the king and council in England as to 
his superior judges, and Edward thereupon sent a 
mandatory writ, dated the 26th of June, 1375, 
(wherein he styles him his beloved clerk,) to Thomas 
Felton, seneschal of Aquitain, William de Elmham, 
seneschal of Gascony, and Richard Rotour, then 

* Rymer's Foedera. f lb. 




144 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

constable of Bourdeaux, commanding them to super- 
sede the said judgment, to cite the said Ivo to appear 
before the king and council at Westminster, the day 
after the purification following, and to stand to such 
decree as the king and council should make in the 
premises. On the 3rd of August, in the same year, 
the king, at the request of the prior and convent of 
the Holy Trinity, and of the dean and chapter of St. 
Patrick's, granted them licence to choose a bishop in 
the place of Thomas Minot, deceased, and their 
choice falling on de Wikeford was confirmed as be- 
fore mentioned. 

Immediately on his appointment, he was sum- 
moned to attend a parliament to be held in Dublin.* 
A remarkable law case is mentioned connected with this 
period of the archbishop's life : one Thomas, a clerk 
in England, obtained judgment against him before 
he was archbishop for £10, and, upon affidavit that 
the defendant lived in Ireland and had goods and 
lands there, and the sheriff's return that he had no 
goods or lands in England, the plaintiff had a writ 
of fieri facias against him when archbishop, to levy 
the said money out of his lands and chattels in 
Ireland. 

In the parliamentary representation which sat at 
Westminster in 1376, the proctors representing the 
clergy of the diocese of Dublin were John Fitz Ellis 
and Thomas Athelard. In Ireland, it may be here 
observed, the clergy seemed to have early complied 



* Rot. Claus. in Cane. Hib. 



BOBERT DE WIKEFORD. 145 

with the model of Edward the First in sending proc- 
tors to parliament ; and, while the archbishops and 
bishops, mitred abbots, and priors sat in the upper 
house, the proctors assembled in the lower. In that 
year de Wikeford was appointed Chancellor of Ire- 
land, and in 1377 received a mandatory writ to alter 
the great seal by changing Edward into Richard ; 
while, at the same time, he had a liberate for £20 
from the treasury, for his expenses in attending " a 
great council."* He was also at that time summoned 
to attend a parliament to be held at Castledermot,f 
and ordered to direct the deans and chapters of his 
cathedrals to choose sufficient proxies to appear for 
them on the occasion. J In 1378 he had an exem- 
plification and confirmation of the manor of Swords 
to him and his successors, and on the 23rd of April, 
1380, had a grant to the see of all its possessions, by 
one of those little slips of parchment which formerly 
conveyed w 7 hole baronies, while the smallest estates 
of modern times are deemed to require a pile of 
skins for their transmission. In the same year the 
assizes, which were to be held before him, were, on 
the petition of the council, postponed, in consequence 
of his necessary attendance in England.§ In 1381 
he was directed by royal mandate to appoint collectors 
of a clerical subsidy for the service of the State,|| and 
summoned to attend a parliament in Dublin, with 
sufficient proctors for his dean and chapter and the 
clergy of his diocese.^f He was also required in the 



* Rot. Claus. in Cane. Hib. 


fib. 


t lb. 


§ Rot. in Cane. Hib. 


11 lb. 


11 lb- 
L 






14.6 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

same year to assign the usual corocly to a clerk of the 
king's nomination.* 

In 1382 de Wikeford was ordered to attend a 
conference of the prelates and nobles to be held at 
Naas,f and was further specially directed not to ab- 
sent himself from Ireland without licence.! In 1385 
he was again appointed Lord Chancellor. In 1387 
he had a confirmation of the right of holding a fair 
at Swords, and also obtained a grant to the see of 
that half of the cantred of the abbacv of Glenda- 
lough, which lay next to the castle of Bally more,§ 
and in 1389 was one of the persons appointed to 
assess the clergy and commons of the County of 
Dublin, for a prescribed subsidy which they had 
granted. || 

Early in 1390 he had leave of absence for one 
year to visit England,^" during which interval, on the 
29th of August, 1390, he died. In the Book of Obits 
of Christ Church it is recorded of this prelate, that he 
remised and released to that cathedral an annual pay- 
ment of five marks, which his predecessors had re- 
ceived for archiepiscopal proxies, and in return a 
yearly commemoration was appointed for him there, 
with an office of nine lessons. 

ROBERT WALDBY. 
[Succ. 1391. Resig. 1395.] 

Robert Waldby, Bishop of Ayre in Gascony, was 
translated to this see by the Pope, on the 14th of 

* Rot. in Cane. Hib. f Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. % lb. 

§ Allen's Registry. || Rot - Pat. in Cane. Hib. f lb. 












ROBERT WALDBY. 147 

November, 1391. He is said to have been born in 
the city of York, but to have received the first ele- 
ments of his education in the abbey of Tickell in 
Yorkshire, where Ware conjectures his brother and 
he assumed the habit of the Augustinian order. He 
afterwards attended the Black Prince into foreign 
parts, and fixed his abode at Tholouse, " where," 
says Bale, "he at last arrived to such a pitch of emi- 
nence, that he was reckoned in the first rank amongst 
the learned both for his eloquence and skill in lan- 
guages. He next became divinity professor at Tho- 
louse, and such an excellent preacher, that he was 
advanced to the highest promotions." These illus- 
trious qualifications gained him the esteem of Prince 
Edward, who never failed to patronize men of learn- 
ing and morality, and he bestowed upon him the 
bishopric of Ay re. Nor was his influence lessened 
on the accession of Richard the Second, who, in 
1383, sent him to treat with John, Duke of Lancaster, 
that had set up a title to the kingdoms of Castile and 
Leon, and such was the royal confidence in Waldby, 
that he was at the same time entrusted with three 
other commissions, one to treat of a peace with Peter, 
King of Arragon, another to negotiate a mutual 
league with Charles, King of Navarre, and a third 
to effect the reduction of John, Earl of Armagnac, 
the king's vassal, to true obedience.* 

In 1392, after he was about a year in this see, 
the same monarch constituted him Chancellor of Ire- 



Rymer's Foedera. 

L 2 



148 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

land ; at which time he appointed Richard Metford, 
Bishop of Chichester, treasurer of this kingdom ; and 
in the following year, Waldby had restitution of all 
such his liberties as had been theretofore encroached 
upon.* In 1394, and a second time in 1395, he had 
full confirmations to him and his successors of all 
former grants and privileges conferred upon the see,f 
and at the close of the same year was ordered to be 
restored to certain parcels of church lands, which his 
predecessors had attempted to alien. In 1395 he was 
summoned to a great council to be held at Kilkenny,! 
where he obtained a confirmation of the jurisdiction, 
privileges, pleas, courts, fairs, franchises, customs, 
and appurtenances to his see belonging, with the 
liberty of a boat on the Anna Liffey ; and he soon 
afterwards received from the Pope, a faculty of filling 
sundry benefices within his diocese, the patronage of 
which had by lapse devolved upon his Holiness.§ In 
the same year, the before-mentioned Richard Met- 
ford, Bishop of Chichester, having been translated 
to the see of Sarum, Doctor Waldby succeeded him 
in that of Chichester, where, however, he sat but a 
short time, and in 1396 was further promoted to the 
Archbishopric of York. 

Immediately on his translation from Dublin, the 
king issued his mandate to the chancellor, treasurer, 
justices, barons, and escheators of Ireland, empower- 
ing them to inquire concerning certain alienations of 
the see lands alleged to have been made by him, 

* Rot. in Turr. Berm. f Allen's Registry. 

% Rot. in Ch. Rememb. Office. § Rot. Claus. in Cane. Hib. 



RICHARD NORTHALIS. 149 

and to cause restitution to be made thereof, while 
the custody of the whole temporalities was, at the 
same time, committed to the Bishop of Meath during 
the vacancy.* 

Archbishop Waldby died in 1 397? an d was buried 
in St. Edmond's Chapel, in Westminster Abbey, 
where a very ancient brass figure, in episcopal robes, 
and under a canopy of the same metal, is inlaid on 
the flat stone that marks his grave. The flag imme- 
diately joining this at top, covers the remains of that 
romantic nobleman Lord Herbert, of Cherbury. 
Bale ascribes to Doctor Waldby some sermons, and 
other religious works. 



RICHARD NORTHALIS. 
[Succ. 1396. Ob. 1397.] 

Richard Northalis was, on the translation of Arch- 
bishop Waldby, promoted to this see. He was the 
son of a mayor of London, and born near that city. 
Having become a Carmelite friar, he obtained such 
a high reputation for his preaching, learning, and 
other acquirements, as attracted the notice of the king, 
who advanced him to the bishopric of Ossory in 1386. 
About the year 1390 he was constituted a commis- 
sioner by the king to inspect into the state, losses, 
and abuses of and in the government of Ireland, and 
into the corruptions and fraud of the officers there, 
w T ith powers to call before him all peers, prelates, and 

* Rot. in Cane. Hib. 



150 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 






others to give information in the premises ; and in 
particular, to report how and on what security Nigel 
O'Neill was enlarged, to inquire also into the num- 
bers which Sir John Stanley, Lord Deputy, had kept 
in his retinue at his last arrival, in Ireland, whether 
he had performed the covenants in his indentures of 
government, and how many men-at-arms and archers 
he transported with him from England, as also to 
ascertain the value of the revenues of Ireland while 
the said justice administered the government there, 
and how much thereof he applied to his own use. 
Northalis was, likewise, authorized to supervise and 
examine into the rolls and records of the exchequer 
and other courts, as often as he pleased, and to re- 
port the behaviour of the officers. And all prelates, 
peers, and other subjects, were commanded to be 
aiding and assisting to him in the execution of this 
multifarious commission. In 1391 and 1394 he was 
employed by the same monarch in the quality of an 
ambassador to Pope Boniface the Ninth, and was ap- 
pointed Chancellor of Ireland in 1393. 

Having spent about nine years in the prelacy of 
Ossory, he was in 1396 promoted, as before men- 
tioned, to this archbishopric ; an honour, however, 
which he enjoyed but for a very short interval, and 
dying in Dublin on the 20th of July, 1397? was 
buried in his own cathedral. While he presided over 
this province, he obtained for himself and his succes- 
sors, the then very important privilege of the admi- 
ralty of Dalkey, as fully mentioned at that locality in 
the " History of the County of Dublin." 



THOMAS CRANLEY. 15 i 



THOMAS CRANLEY. 
[Succ. 1397. Ob. 1417.] 

Thomas Cranley, of the Carmelite order, a native 
of England, Doctor of Divinity, Fellow of Merton 
College, Warden of New College, and for a time 
Chancellor of the University of Oxford, was, on the 
death of Archbishop Northalis, appointed his suc- 
cessor. He appears to have been consecrated in 
1397 5 although he did not arrive in Dublin until 
the October of the following year, when he came in 
company with the Duke of Surrey, Lord Lieutenant 
of Ireland. He then also filled the influential office 
of Lord Chancellor of this country. In 1398 he had 
letters of protection on proceeding to foreign parts 
in the service of the king,* and in the following year 
had power to treat with the Irish. t In 1401 he was 
again appointed Lord Chancellor, and in the same 
year the clergy and commons of his diocese granted 
a subsidy of eighty marks for the use of the state.J 

In 1403, in consequence of the illness of this 
prelate, the king empowered the Master of the Rolls 
to exercise the office of chancellor as his deputy.§ 
In 1405, by reason of his being so much employed 
in state affairs, as not to be able to attend at the places 
where assizes were to be held, the king authorized 
the Chief Justice and the second Justice of the bench 
to preside at the same in his place. || The imme- 

* Rymer's Fcedera. f Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. 

t Rymer's Fcedera. § Rot, Pat. in Cane. Hib. || lb. 



152 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

diately sueeeeding years afford no firm footing for 
his historian, until the beginning of the year 1413, 
when Doctor Cranley being again Lord Chancellor, 
from a similar and paramount occupation of his time 
in places remote from the sessions of the chief bench, 
John Bermingham, second justice thereof, was as- 
signed to hold the assizes for him. At the close of 
this year, the archbishop was Lord Justice of Ireland, 
at which latter period, Leland the antiquary says, 
" he wrote a neat epistle to the king, in elegant verse, 
consisting of 106 lines, which I read with great plea- 
sure, and was at the pains of treasuring up in my 
memory." 

In 1416, on the departure of Lord Furnival for 
England, he constituted this prelate his deputy in 
the government of Ireland, as he was so empowered 
to do by his commission,* and honourable mention 
of his conduct in that trust was made by the Irish 
memorialists of the day. About the end of April 
1417? he went into England, where he died at 
Faringdon, on the 25th of May following, in the 
eightieth year of his age, and not more full of years 
than honours. His body was conveyed to Oxford, and 
there interred in New College of which he had been 
the first warden. A monument was erected therein 
for him, being "a fair stone, adorned with brass 
plates, bearing the figure of a bishop clothed in his 
sacred vestments, over whom the armorials of the 
see of Dublin are placed with his own ;" beneath is 



Rot. Claus. in Cane, Hib. 



RICHARD TALBOT. 153 

an inscription in barbarous latin, which Harris has 
copied, as also another that runs round the side of 
the stone. " He was a prelate," as Leland says, " in 
high reputation for his wit and pen ;" while Marle- 
burgh w 7 rites, "he was liberal, and fond of alms 
deeds, a profound clerk, and doctor of divinity, an 
excellent preacher, and a great builder and improver 
of such places as fell under his care. He was fair, 
magnificent, of a sanguine complexion, and tall of 
stature, so that in his time it might be said to him, 
6 thou art fair beyond the children of men, grace is 
diffused through thy lips because of thy eloquence ;' 
endowments which rendered him justly dear to the 
three successive kings, during whose reigns he lived. 



RICHARD TALBOT. 
[Sue. 1417. Ob. 1449.] 

Richard Talbot, his successor, was descended from 
a noble family, and brother to that celebrated warrior 
John Talbot, Lord of Furnival, whom King Henry 
the Sixth, for his great valour and faithful services 
in France, dignified with the titles of Earl of Shrews- 
bury, Waterford, and Wexford. In 1407 he was 
collated to the precentorship of Hereford, and in 
1416 was elected to the primacy of Armagh, after the 
death of Archbishop Fleming ; but, having ne- 
glected to expedite his confirmation in due time, 
John Swain was promoted thereto in his place. In 
the following year (1417)? he was consecrated arch* 
bishop of this see, as may be seen in the White 



154 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Book of Christ Church, compiled in the sixteenth 
century by Thomas Fitch, sub-prior of that cathe- 
dral. 

In 1423 he was Lord Justice, and subsequently 

Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and in 1424 had a grant 
for his services, of all the estates of Matthew St. John 
deceased, being in the hands of the king by reason 
of the death of said Matthew and the minority of his 
heir William St. John, to hold same, together with the 
marriage of said heir, and so from heir to heir, until 
some one should attain age, and have livery of said 
estates. He was also constituted at this time a jus- 
tice and guardian of the peace within the county 
of Dublin, with various powers. In 1425, on ac- 
count of his being daily engaged journeying in the 
Lord Deputy's suite, he assigned the Chief Justice, 
and the second Justice of Ireland, to hold the assizes 
without the great seal, saving, however, the fees of 
said seal.* 

In 1426 he reduced the proxies, that were for- 
merly paid by the prior and convent of the Holy 
Trinity to the Archbishops of Dublin, from five 
marks, to two and an half, which concession Pope 
Eugene afterwards confirmed, in the seventh year of 
his pontificate, by a bull still preserved among the 
archives of Christ Church. In the ensuing year, 
in recompence of his labours and charges on finding 
men at arms, and archers, horse and foot, for the de- 
fence of the marches of the county of Dublin and else- 

* Rot, in Cane. Hib. 



RICHARD TALBOT. 155 

where against the Irish, he had £40 granted to him 
from the treasury ;* and in 1428 was again consti- 
tuted Lord Chancellor.f 

In 1429? John Swain, Archbishop of Armagh, 
having been summoned to appear in a parliament 
held in the province of Leinster, made return, that 
he could not personally attend without violation of 
his oath, taken at his consecration, to defend the 
rights of his see, and that he was impeded by the 
contradiction and rebellion of the archbishop and 
clergy of Dublin, on the articles of bearing his cross, 
and asserting his primatial jurisdiction in the province 
of Leinster. In the same year Talbot had a royal 
mandate, reciting, that the king was led to under- 
stand, that several of his Irish subjects, arrayed and 
in arms, held unlawful meetings and traversed the 
country from place to place, causing various damages 
to the king and his subjects, all which ill doings this 
prelate was alleged to aid and abet ; he was therefore 
commanded forthwith to put a stop to such meet- 
ings, and without fail, to appear before his majesty 
and his council at an early day, there to answer such 
matters as might be charged against him. J 

In 1431 the king granted to him the custody of 
two-thirds of the manor of Trim, and of certain other 
premises, being in the crown by reason of the mi- 
nority of Richard Duke of York, and in the same 
year, with the consent of the prebendary of Swords 
and of the two chapters of the diocese, he instituted a 

* Rot. in Cane. Hib. t lb. J lb. 



156 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



new corporation within the cathedral of St. Patrick's, 
consisting of six minor canons, and six choristers : 
the former were to be presbyters ; of these he de- 
signated the first in rank by the title of sub-dean, 
and the second by that of succentor ; they were not, 
however, to have a voice in the chapter, or any fixed 
stall in the choir. For the support of this body, he 
allocated the tithes of the parish of Swords, except 
such portions as were specially reserved to the pre- 
bendary and perpetual vicar ; the two elder canons 
were to receive six marks yearly, over and above the 
stipend of ten marks allowed annually to each of the 
other four ; each of the choristers were to have four 
marks of English money, while twenty from the 
residue were reserved to the precentor for life ; but, 
after his death, the whole of such residue was ap- 
propriated for ever to lighting the altars, and other 
uses of the cathedral.* He also established a chantry 
in St. Michael's church, which, from being a chapel 
he constituted parochial, and likewise, founded the 
chantry of St. Anne in St. Audeon's church, for 
the maintenance of six priests, to pray for the king, 
and the founder, and their successors, and procured 
a licence to purchase in mortmain to the extent of 
£66 13s. 4d. per annum for its endowment. 

In 1432 it is recorded that Thomas Chace having 
in the presence of the Lord Deputy, in the chapter 
room of the house of the Dominicans, presented 
letters patent, by which he was appointed Lord 



* Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 83. 



RICHARD TALBOT. 157 

Chancellor, to this prelate, and having required 
from him the delivery of the great seal, the archbi- 
shop, conceiving the letters patent did not sufficiently 
substantiate such an intention, declined giving up 
same, but consigned them to the custody of the Lord 
Deputy until the king's will should be, as it so after- 
wards was, better ascertained.* In 1435, and in the 
three following years, the Archbishop of Armagh 
having been summoned to attend parliaments to be 
held in the province of Leinster, made similar re- 
turns of being impeded by this prelate as he had in 
1429. In 1436 Archbishop Talbot acted as deputy 
to Sir Thomas Stanley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 
and about the year 1440 caused certain processes 
and apostolic bulls, in favour of the four orders of 
mendicants, to be published at the high cross of the 
City of Dublin,*)* as so specially directed by the pope. 
In the same year he was again Lord Deputy of Ire- 
land, and as such presided at a parliament held 

there 4 

In 1442 and 1443 similar assertions of primatial 
authority occur as mentioned at 1429. About the close 
of the former year Talbot was despatched by the par- 
liament of Ireland to King Henry the Sixth, together 
with the superior of St. Mary's Abbey, with a joint 
commission to instruct his Majesty on the state of 
affairs in that kingdom. In 1443, on the death of 
John Prene, he was elected Archbishop of Armagh 
by the dean and chapter of that see, but upon his 

* Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. t Rot. Claus. in Cane. Hib. 

\ Borlase's Reduction of Ireland, p. 76. 



158 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

refusal of the dignity it was conferred upon John 
Mey. In 1445 he was a fourth time Lord Deputy 
of Ireland, and in 1447 was appointed deputy to the 
Earl of Ormond, Viceroy of Ireland. In 1446, 
and the three following years, similar assertions of 
primatial authority occur as mentioned in 1429. 

Having sat in this see almost thirty-two years, 
during all which time he was of the privy council, to 
King Henry the Fifth and King Henry the Sixth, 
he died on the 15th of August, 1449, and was buried 
in St. Patrick's Church before the steps of the altar, 
under a marble monument adorned with his portrai- 
ture cut in brass, a mitre on his head, and a pastoral 
staff in his hand ; some fragments of which, Harris 
says, were remaining in his day, with an inscription, 
which Ware has preserved. The temporalities of the 
see were upon his decease committed to Sir William 
Welles, knight. Archbishop Talbot was the author 
of a work entitled " De abusu regiminis Jacobi 
Comitis Ormoniae, dum esset locumtenens Hiberniae," 
©n which subject a contemporary of his, Giles Thorn- 
ton, Treasurer of Ireland, also wrote. Those pamph- 
lets were but introductory to hostile designs against 
the Earl of Ormond, when Thomas Fitz Thomas, 
Prior of Kilmainham, supported by this archbishop, 
and by the Lord Treasurer, went to England to 
accuse him of high treason. The combat was, there- 
upon, awarded between them to take place at Smith- 
field in London, but the king interposed and pre- 
vented the rencontre. There were not, howover, 
wanting champions in the paper war to undertake 






MICHAEL TREGURY. 159 

the earl's defence ; among whom was Jordan, Bishop 
of Cork and Cloyne, whose epistle to King Henry 
the Sixth upon this subject is yet extant.* 



MICHAEL TREGURY. 
[Succ. 1449. Ob. 1471.] 

Before the close of the year in which Archbishop 
Talbot died, Michael Tregury, a native of the village 
of Tregury in Cornwall, (whence his family derived 
the surname), Doctor of Divinity in the university of 
Oxford, sometime Fellow of Exeter college there, 
and chaplain to the King, was consecrated in St. 
Patrick's church archbishop of this province, having 
therewith, as his predecessor had, the deanery of 
Penkridge in Staffordshire, before alluded to. He 
was even at a much earlier period esteemed of such 
great eminence for learning and wisdom, that in the 
year 1418 King Henry the Fifth invited him over to 
Caen in Normandy, to take upon him the govern- 
ment of a college which that monarch had founded 
there, Henry at the same time selecting the pro- 
fessors thereof from the mendicant friars. Tregury 
accepted this trust, and for a considerable time dis- 
charged it with well-merited applause, both for his 
public lectures and his writings, a catalogue of which 
may be seen in Bale and Pits. 

His life, during the period of his prelacy, was 
chiefly passed in such scenes of repose, or strictly 

* Ware's Writers, p. 323. 






160 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

ecclesiastical employments, as leaves little of popular 
note for history to commemorate. In 1450 he had 
restitution of the temporalities of his see, with the 
usual renunciation clause of any benefit in the bull 
of his promotion prejudicial to the crown. He was 
called into the Privy Council immediately, and had 
.£20 per annum granted him by the king for his 
good counsel, being the salary which his predecessors, 
Archbishops of Dublin, who were of the council, had 
been accustomed to receive. In 1451 the liberties 
of his see were, on inspeximus and by the authority 
of a great council held at Drogheda, and thence ad- 
journed to Dublin, again confirmed to him and his 
successors for ever. In the same year, according to 
the Registry of the Dominican monastery in Dublin, 
above fifty persons went out of this diocese to Rome, 
to celebrate the jubilee then held under Pope Nicholas 
the Fifth, to whom this prelate gave recommendatory 
certificates. So great was the concourse and hard- 
ship of the pilgrimage, that seven of the number 
were pressed to death in the crowd, and many more 
died of fatigue on their return. In accordance with 
this account, Matthias Palmerius, in his additions to 
the Chronicle of Eusebius, says, " there was so great 
a gathering of people from all parts of the Christian 
world at this jubilee, that at Adrian's mole almost 
200 perished in the press, besides many who were 
drowned in the Tiber." They, who returned safe in 
1453, brought the melancholy news that Constanti- 
nople was taken by the Turks, and the Emperoi 
Constantine Palseologus slain ; Archbishop Tregury 



, MICHAEL TREGURY. 161 

was so afflicted at the account, that he proclaimed a 
fast, to be strictly observed throughout his diocese for 
three successive days, and granted indulgences to 
those who observed it, while himself went before the 
clergy in procession to Christ Church, clothed in 
sackcloth and ashes. At this period, it appearing 
that the archiepiscopal crosier had been, on the de- 
cease of Archbishop Tregury and before the arrival 
of Talbot, surreptitiously pledged for five marks, 
this prelate pronounced sentence, that, as the prior 
and convent of Christ Church had the honour and 
responsibility of keeping it, they ought to release it ; 
yet it appears, from the comment written by Arch- 
bishop Allen in the time of Henry the Eighth, that 
this valuable ensign of authority continued unre- 
deemed for nearly eighty years : " Verum ego Alanus 
Johannes septimus, (being the seventh John that was 
Archbishop of Dublin,) propriis expensis recuperavi 
tarn crucem quam baculum, dando uncias ferme cen- 
tum argenti de meis. Igitur orate pro anima mea." 
In 1453 the king, for the securing of an arrear 
of two years and an half due to this prelate and his 
accruing salary, granted him the custody of the manor 
or lordship of Saggard, and the town of Ballychize, 
parcel thereof, to hold same during the time he 
should be archbishop.* In the same year he was 
taken prisoner in the bay by pirates, who were carry- 
ing off some ships from the harbour of Dublin ; they 
were pursued, however, to Ardglass in the county of 

* Rymer's Foedera. 

M 



1G2 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Down, where 520 of these sea-rovers were killed, 
and the prelate released. In 1454 all statutes against 
provisors in England and Ireland were confirmed by 
a new act, and directed to be enforced against all 
who should sue " any provision upon any man bene- 
ficed within this land of Ireland, and by cause of the 
provision enter into any benefice or benefices of the 
Church, and take any goods or chattels from any 
benefices of the Church against whom any provisions 
are sued," under pecuniary penalties and treble da- 
mages ; and in 1458 another act of parliament was 
passed, to compel all persons holding benefices in 
Ireland to reside in that country, under pain of for- 
feiture of all the issues and profits of their livings, 
a moiety thereof to be applied to the use of their 
churches, and the other moiety " to be expended in 
our sovereign lord the king's wars, in defence of this 
poor land of Ireland." In 1461, on the occasion of 
this prelate going to England, he had licence to re- 
ceive, for one year of absence, the tithes and other 
profits of his diocese, without incurring any penalties 
as an absentee.* 

There is extant in the Liber Niger of Christ 
Church, a copy of a bull of Pope Pius the Second, 
dated the 23rd of November, 1462, and directed to 
the Bishop and Archdeacon of Ossory, commanding 
them to pronounce as excommunicated, Geoffrey 
Harold and two of his sons, Patrick Byrne, Thady 
Sheriff, Robert Burnell and others, laymen of the city 

* Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. 






MICHAEL TREGURY. 1(33 

and diocese of Dublin, for assaulting this prelate and 
committing him to prison, and to keep the offenders 
under the ban, until they personally sought absolu- 
tion at Rome with the sanction and approval of the 
said bishop and archdeacon. These were, probably, 
some accessaries in the transaction mentioned ante 
at 1453. 

In 1467 the purchasing of Irish benefices from 
Rome, to hold in commendam, was by statute pro- 
hibited under all the penalties of the acts against 
provisors, with the additional enactment that no par- 
don or licence of the king should avail to excuse any 
one offending therein, unless confirmed by parlia- 
ment ; and all letters patent of pardon from the king 
to provisors were declared void. In the same year, 
this prelate assigned a moiety of the parish of Lusk 
for the treasurer of St. Patrick's, and constituted the 
rectory of St. Audeon in the city, a distinct prebend. 
In 1468 he held a visitation in the chapter-house of 
St. Patrick's cathedral ; on which occasion the gene- 
ral articles having been read, the dean reported that 
he had visited the canons, petit canons, and vicars 
choral, that all the prebends were visited, except 
Tipperkevin, Tipper, Ballymore, Dunlavin, Yagoe, 
Donaghmore in Imayle, Stagonil, and Monmohenock, 
which lay in the Irish territory, or on the marches of 
the Pale, so that he dared not to visit them on ac- 
count of the war in those parts, and except also 
Howth and Mullaghiddart. He reported, moreover, 
that they were corrected by his visitation, were corri- 
gible and obedient ; whereupon, after some questions 

M 2 



164 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



asked relative to the hospitality of the dean and 
canons, the visitation was adjourned.* In the fol- 
lowing year, on the occasion of his going to England 
on state affairs, he had letters of protection prohibit- 
ing any to retard or molest him, &c.f 

Having presided over this see twenty-two years, 
he died in 1471 (the 21st of December), at a very 
advanced age, at the manor-house of Tallagh, which 
he had previously repaired. His remains were con- 
veyed to Dublin, attended by the clergy and citizens, 
and buried in St. Patrick's church near St. Stephen's 
altar, as he had directed by his will ; where, Ware 
mentions, " a specious monument" might have been 
seen before his time, " adorned with his statue of 
elegant workmanship," with inscriptions at head and 
foot ; but which certainly were penned without much 
inspiration from the Muses. This monument, Harris 



adds, was found under the rubbish in St. Stephen's 
chapel ; Dean Swift preserved the cover, and had it 
set up " in the wall on the left hand after entering 
the west gate, and between the said gate and the 
place where theretofore the Consistory court was 
held, while over it was placed the inscription, ' Vetus 
hoc monumentum, e ruderibus capellae divi Stephani 
nuper instauratae erutum, Decanus et Capitulum hue 
transferri curaverunt. A. D. 1730.'" The will of 
this prelate, dated the 10th of December, 1471, is 
extant among the manuscripts of Trinity College, 
Dublin. He thereby devised two silver gilt salt- 

* Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 136. t Rymer's Fcedera. 



MICHAEL TEEGURY. 165 

lars, with their covers, to be used as chalices in 
St. Patrick's cathedral at the celebration of Mass. 
He, likewise, bequeathed a pair of organs to the said 
church, to be used in St. Mary's chapel. " I devise 
also/' he adds, " that William Wyse, whose industry 
for this purpose I choose, shall, in my stead, visit 
with a decent oblation St. Michael's Mount in Corn- 
wall, which by vow I am bound to perform either 
by myself or proxy ; and he also directed the same 
individual to make some donations towards building 
the churches of that neighbourhood, " near which," 
as he declares, " his friends dwell. " He is said by 
Bale to have written " Lecturas in quatuor libros 
sententiarum ;" " De origine illius studii ;" " Ordi- 
narias quaestiones ;" and other works. 

Immediately after his decease, John Alleyne, 
Dean of St. Patrick's, was elected archbishop by the 
united suffrages of both cathedrals ; for, although 
the convent of the Holy Trinity at first feared, lest 
the displeasure of the crown might be incurred by 
not waiting for a royal licence, and therefore refused 
to hold an election, the chapter of St. Patrick's, having 
executed a bond of indemnity to them for the sum of 
£100, sealed with their common seal, induced their 
perfect acquiescence. Nevertheless, although so 
elected by the voices of both chapters, Alleyne was 
not confirmed in the archbishopric, probably on ac- 
count of the informality, and John Walton, being 
afterwards nominated by the king, received the pall 
in 1472. 



166 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 



JOHN WALTON. 
[Succ. 1472. Resign. 1484.] 

John Walton, otherwise called John Mounstern, 
was the eighteenth Abbot of Osney, near Oxford, to 
the government of which house he was advanced in 
1452, and in the year following obtained a licence 
from John Bishop of Lincoln, for him and his suc- 
cessors, and for their prebendal churches of Stow and 
Biberig, to wear a vestment called almucia, as it was 
used in cathedrals in divine service ; this article of 
distinction was lined with skins or furs, and more 
commonly called "omos" from being worn on the 
shoulders. Stephens in his Monasticon conjectures 
that he was the same John Walton, who supplicated 
for his degrees in divinity in 1451, the year before 
he was made Abbot of Osney, being previously 
canon of that house, and upon that supposition attri- 
butes to him the translation of " Boetius de consola- 
tione" into English verse, which is extant in manu- 
script in Baliol College Library, Oxford. From the 
aforesaid abbacy he was advanced to the Archbi- 
shopric of Dublin, and was consecrated in England 
and adorned with the pall in 1472. On his arrival 
in Ireland he endeavoured to exercise ordinary juris- 
diction over the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick's, 
but the dean insisted on his right to be ordinary in 
his own cathedral ; and, when the archbishop deprived 
him, he petitioned parliament, and obtained a statute 
confirmatory of his privileges and those of his chapter. 
It may be remarked, that there is in the college ma- 



JOHN WALTON. 167 

nuscripts a registry of the wills of this diocese in 
1472. 

In 1473, on the occasion of a sequestration of 
the corbeship of Glendalough, he directed it thus : 
"Johannes miseratione divina Dubliniensis Archiepis- 
eopus et Hibernian Primas, clericis, vassalis, adscriptitiis 
et aliis habitatoribus villas et totius dominii nostri de 
Glendalache,terrarum,syl varum, nemorum et aliorum 
locorum ipsius manerii nostri, sal litem, gratiam etbene- 
dictionem,"* &c. In 1475, at the instance of the 
Dominicans and other regulars, Pope Sextus the 
Fourth issued his bull, wherein, reciting the abun- 
dance of teachers but the deficiency of schools in 
Ireland, and the consequently rarely embraced and 
expensive consequences of foreign education, he 
sanctioned the establishment of a university in Dublin 
for the study of the arts and theology, and the con- 
ferring of the usual degrees therein.f In 1476 Arch- 
bishop Walton had a confirmation, by the award of 
the Bishop of Meath, of fourteen marks for proxies 
from the Abbey of St. Thomas, for every year he 
visited in person the said abbey and the churches 
united to it. J Yet not until 1477 does he appear to 
have obtained formal restitution of the temporalities 
of his see. 

In 1478, on the petition of this prelate, an act of 
parliament passed, whereby some lands of the arch- 
bishopric, which had been partly let out to farm, and 

* Regist Arch. Dublin. 

t De Burgo Hib. Dom, p. 193. t Id. p. 195. 



168 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

partly alienated by Talbot and Tregury, were re- 
stored to the see ; the exemplification of the act is 
preserved in the Black Book of Christ Church. 
Another statute, of the same session, seems to have 
laid the foundation of the Archbishop of Dublin 
being always of his Majesty's Privy Council. The 
act recited that a doubt existed, whether in the case 
of any sudden vacancy in the office of Chief Governor, 
the election of a temporary Deputy should be made 
by the Privy Council, or by all the lords spiritual 
and temporal and the more honourable of the three 
adjoining counties ; and it enacts, that it shall be by 
the council, the Archbishops of Dublin and Armagh, 
the Bishops of Meath and Kildare, the mayors of 
Dublin and Drogheda, and the lords spiritual and 
temporal of parliament of the four counties, Dublin, 
Kildare, Meath, and Louth, or the greater part of 
them. About the same time this prelate, as Arch- 
bishop Allen suggests in the " Repertorium Viride," 
annexed the perpetual vicarage of St. Kevin to his 
choral vicar of the prebend of Cullen, and said vicar 
accordingly appeared in the choir habited as a minor 
canon, in token of his pre-eminence. 

In 1484, being blind and in an infirm state of 
health, he voluntarily resigned the archbishopric, 
reserving to himself for a maintenance the manor 
of Swords during his life ; a saving which was 
confirmed to him in the following year by act of 
parliament duly enrolled. A short time previous 
to his resignation, he terminated a long litigation, 
which had existed between the see and the prior and 



JOHN WALTON. 1 69 

convent of Holmpatrick, the particulars of which may 
be seen at that locality in the " History of the County 
of Dublin." 

Upon the resignation of Archbishop Walton, 
Gerald, Earl of Kildare, then Lord Deputy, forcibly 
entered into and took possession of twenty-four town- 
lands belonging to this see, in the lordships of Bally- 
more and Castlekevin, and held them to the time of 
his death. Possibly, these were the lands alienated 
by Talbot and Tregury before mentioned, and which 
were restored by act of parliament. His immediate 
successor, Archbishop Fitz Simon, never took any 
steps for their recovery, although he was a man of 
power, Chancellor and Lord Deputy, and filled the 
see during twenty-seven years ; Fitz Simon's suc- 
cessor, William Rokeby, in 1514 petitioned Gerald, 
Earl of Kildare (son of the former), and the council 
for a restitution, whereupon, the matter was referred 
to Patrick Bermingham and Richard de la Hoyde, 
justices, and Bartholomew Dillon, Chief Baron; who, 
in two years afterwards made an award in favour of 
the archbishop, and the see was restored to its rights 
after a dispossession of about thirty- two years, but 
the house of Kildare, still laying claim to these lands, 
again forcibly seized upon them, and Harris says he 
saw a petition of Archbishop Inge to the Earl of 
Surrey, when Lord Lieutenant, against Thomas Fitz 
Gerald, complaining of this force, and praying resti- 
tution, which was decreed in his favour on the 21st 
of December, 1521 ; and it would appear that the 
see" has had undisturbed possession of them ever 
since. 



170 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

In 1489? five years after he had vacated the see, 
emerging from the obscurity and repose which only 
his age and infirmities necessitated, he again appeared 
in the pulpit of his cathedral, and preached at St. 
Patrick's church on the festival of its patron, before 
the Lord Deputy and the nobles, to the admiration 
of the hearers. He was led thence to the archbishop's 
palace, where he dined with the chief men of the 
State. The Registry of Swords gives an account of 
this and two other sermons preached by him when 
he was blind, and speaks of him in terms of high 
commendation, especially for his hospitality and his 
cheerful and innocent disposition. The precise time 
of his death has not been ascertained, but his will 
without date is extant among the manuscripts in 
Trinity College, Dublin. He therein ordered his 
body to be buried at Osney, among its abbots, if he 
died in England, directed one portiforium (an eccle- 
siastical book), with the Mass-book and a book called 
" pupilla oculi" to be restored to that abbey, together 
with the following articles : viz. one silver cup with a 
gilded cover, one white cup with a cover, and two 
silver bolbecis, a silver gilt salt-cellar with a gilt 
cover, a double neck-cloth of diaper, two long diaper 
towels, and three short ones of the same sort, a large 
hanging branch for four candles, of tin, four other 
candlesticks of tin, ten jackets, two pair of vestments 
of green damask, six rochets, and other particulars ; 
and he also bequeathed to the said abbey, two books 
of physic, twelve silver spoons, a feather bed, bolster, 
and four pillows. 






WALTER FITZ SIMON. 171 

WALTER FITZ-SIMON. 
[Succ. 1484. Ob. 1511.] 

Walter Fitz-Simon succeeded. He was a bache- 
lor of the civil and canon laws, a learned divine and 
philosopher, precentor of St. Patrick's church, whose 
chapter he represented as proxy in a parliament of 
1478. He was also official of the diocese of Dublin. 
On the 14th of June, 1484, Pope Sextus the Fourth 
appointed him for this see, upon which he was, with 
the king's licence, consecrated in St. Patrick's cathe- 
dral, on the 26th of September following. On the 
preceding day, the dean, chancellor, and treasurer, 
had solicited the consent of the prior and convent of 
the Holy Trinity, that this ceremony should take 
place in St. Patrick's ; but they were refused, in 
consequence of which, a dispute took place that lasted 
until evening ;* on the following day, however, the 
sacred ceremony was permitted to be solemnized in 
the place required. In the same year an act was 
passed, reciting that divers benefices of this diocese, 
the advowsons of which belonged to the archbishop 
in right of his see, " were situated amongst Irish 
enemies, and, as no Englishmen could inhabit the 
said benefices, and divers English clerks, who were 
enabled to have cure of souls, were not expert in 
the Irish language, and such of them as were, dis- 
dained to inhabit amongst the Irish people, and 
others dared not, by which means divine service was 

* .Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 139. 






172 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

diminished, and the cure of souls neglected ;" it was 
therefore enacted, that this prelate might for two 
years collate Irish clerks to the said benefices, without 
any impeachment from the king, his heirs, officers, 
or ministers, any act to the contrary notwithstanding, 
(such beneficed clergy being sworn to allegiance), a 
privilege which it was found necessary to renew to 
Fitz Simon in 1493. 

In 1487 this prelate was one of the deluded, who 
espoused the cause of Lambert Simnel and were 
accessary to his coronation in Christ Church ; ac- 
cordingly, his holiness on the Qth of January, 1487? 
directed his bull to the Archbishops of Cashel and 
Tuam, and the Bishops of Clogher and Ossory, 
reciting, that he had been informed, that the Arch- 
bishops of Armagh and Dublin, and the Bishops of 
Meath and Kildare, were not ashamed to adhere to 
the king's enemies, and to proclaim and crown a 
pretender, contrary to their true allegiance. The 
pontiff, therefore, directed an inquiry into the charge, 
and a full and explicit report in relation thereto, that 
he might, with the advice of the cardinals, proceed 
against the offenders, according to the canons. The 
Primate of Armagh was, however, wholly innocent 
of the charge, but the other three were publicly 
guilty. Such indeed was the credulity with which 
the impostor was received in Ireland, that even the 
Lord Deputy of the day, the Earl of Kildare, and the 
council received him with open arms, and the people 
unanimously declared in his favour. He w T as carried 
in state to the Castle of Dublin, in a few days pro- 



WALTER FITZ SIMON. 173 

claimed king, and crowned in Christ Church, by the 
name of Edward the Sixth ; whereupon, he con- 
vened a parliament, in which laws were made, sub- 
sidies granted, and attainders passed as usual in 
Ireland. The contrite petition of the mayor and 
citizens of Dublin to Henry the Seventh, evinces 
how powerfully this prelate's example influenced their 
conduct on this occasion. " We were daunted," say 
they, " not only to see your chief governor, whom 
your highness made ruler over us, to bend or bow 
to that idol whom they made us to obey, but also 
our father of Dublin, and most of the clergy of the 
nation, except the Reverend father his Grace Oc- 
tavian, Archbishop of Armagh." In 1488, how- 
ever, Fitz Simon was permitted amongst several to 
renew his allegiance, and receive pardon through 
Sir Richard Edgecombe, while the Earl of Kildare 
took the oath more solemnly in the church of St, 
Thomas's Abbey, " holding his right hand over the 
holy host ; the Archbishop of Dublin, when the mass 
was ended in the choir of said church, began Te 
Deurn, and the choir with the organs sung it up 
solemnly, and at that time all the bells in the church 
rang. * 

In 14Q2 this prelate was made deputy to Jaspar 
Duke of Bedford, in lieu of Gerald Earl of Kildare, 
and the appointment was ratified by the king. 
While in this situation, he endeavoured to effectuate 
industrious habits amongst the more indolent of the 



* Harris's Hibernica, Part 1, p. 33. 



174 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 

people, and represented to his sovereign, " how idly 
the younger sons of rich families spent their time, 
who learned no trade, nor qualified themselves by 
study for any liberal profession, but lived in a state 
of dependance on the elder brother or head of the 
family, and so became useless to the commonwealth ; 
and as for the bulk of the common people, they lived 
in sloth and indolence, on account of the great plenty 
of all kinds of provisions that the land naturally pro- 
duceth, and for this they neglect to labour ; that it 
is greater charity to find work for them, than to re- 
lieve them from door to door, for that the one is 
acceptable to God, profitable to the commonwealth, 
and healthful to the body ; whereas, idleness is the 
root of all evil." Upon the receipt of this letter 
Henry immediately issued orders, "that none should 
be suffered to wander about the cities, towns, or 
boroughs of Ireland, without a certificate from the 
mayor, bailiff, or seneschal of the places where they 
were born, by which means, every town kept their 
own poor, and a workhouse was erected in every 
parish, town, or borough, for the vagabonds to work 
in. The archbishop appointed beadles for this pur- 
pose, to look after the several cities, towns, and 
parishes, to keep beggars out, and to take up stran- 
gers."* In the following year (1493), Fitz Simon 
held a parliament at Dublin, in which all the inquisi- 
tions before that time found against him, on the 
instigation of Roland Lord Portlester, were declared 



* Council Books, temp. Hen. VII. 



WALTER FITZ SIMON. 175 

void, while at the same session, all grants, annuities, 
leases, &c, made by this prelate and his three im- 
mediate predecessors, were annulled, and resumed to 
the church. Being removed in this year from the 
office of deputy, he immediately passed into England, 
to lay before the king a full account, as well of his 
own government as of the state of this kingdom, 
which was followed by the impeachment of the Earl 
of Kildare. Before leaving Ireland, he delivered 
his crosier to Richard Skerrit, Prior of Christ 
Church, to whom its custody appertained. From 
this expedition he returned to his province with am- 
ple testimonials of the royal satisfaction, and sub- 
sequently grew into so much greater favour and 
familiarity with Henry, that Richard Stanyhurst 
says of him,* that being present when an oration 
was pronounced in his praise, that monarch, when it 
was concluded, inquired from the archbishop, what 
he found most material in his speech. The arch- 
bishop replied, if it pleaseth your highness, it pleas- 
eth me, I find no fault, save only that he flattered 
your majesty too much. Now in good faith, said 
the king, our father of Dublin ! we were minded to 
find the same fault ourselves. 

In the parliament of 1495 all the statutes there- 
tofore passed, as well in England as in Ireland, 
against provisors to Rome, were confirmed, and 
directed " to be from thenceforth duly and straightly 



* De Rebus Hibernicis. 



176 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

executed in all points within the said land, according 
to the effect of the same." 

In 1496 the king having appointed his son, 
Henry Duke of York, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 
and " greatly desiring," as the record states, " that 
in his absence and youth justice might in all particu- 
lars be administered in the right track, and confiding 
in the allegiance, diligence, integrity, conscience, 
experience, and learning of this Archbishop/' ap- 
pointed him Lord Chancellor of said kingdom, &c* 
In the same year Fitz Simon held a provincial synod 
in the Church of the Holy Trinity, on which occa- 
sion an annual contribution for seven years was 
settled by the clergy of the province, to provide 
salaries for the lecturers of the university in St. 
Patrick's Cathedral.f On the 19th of May in the 
following year, he granted to John Alleyne, Dean of 
St. Patrick's, licence to build an hospital for the re- 
lief of the poor, and assigned to him a large space of 
ground in Kevin-street for that purpose, the arch- 
bishop reserving to himself and his successors full 
power of appropriating two beds within this recep- 
tacle ; and all the poor therein lodged being required 
to pray for his soul, as a principal founder, and for 
the souls of the dean, his friends and successors, for 
ever. This establishment was not intended for the 
poor indiscriminately, but it was prescribed that those 
only should be admissible who were good Catholics, of 

* Rymer's Foedera. f Allen's Registry, f. 105. 






WILLIAM FITZ SIMON. 177 

honest conversation, without reproach, of English 
nation, and chiefly from the families of Allen, Barret, 
Begg, Hill, Dillon, and Rogers, settlers in the dio- 
ceses of Dublin and Meath ; and out of those classes 
the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick's were to have 
the right of selection without fee or reward.* 

On the 30th of the same month, Friar Denis 
White, who had for several years usurped the diocese 
of Glendalough, being old and infirm, surrendered 
it in the chapel house of St. Patrick's, Dublin, 
« being touched in conscience," as he confessed, 
" because the see of Glendalough had been united 
to that of Dublin from the reign of King John ;" and 
ever since that surrender the archbishops of Dublin 
have without interruption enjoyed the see. Yet it is 
to be remarked, that de Burgof mentions the advance- 
ment of Doctor Francis de Corduba thereto by the 
Pope's permission. The history, however, of this 
latter diocese is not within the scope of these me- 
moirs. 

In 1508 Fitz Simon was deputy to Gerald Earl 
of Kildare, to whom he resigned the sword in the 
August of the same year. In 1507 he was instru- 
mental in obtaining from the king a charter of in- 
corporation for the carpenters, millers, heylers, and 
tilers of the metropolis ; and in 1 509 was again 
Lord Chancellor. 

Having filled this see during twenty-seven years, 
he died on the 14th of May, 1511, at Finglas near 



* Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 142. t Hib. Dom, p. 479. 

N 



178 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Dublin, whence his body was conveyed to St. Pa- 
trick's Church, and there honourably interred in the 
nave : Harris characterizes him as a prelate of great 
gravity and learning, and of a graceful presence, able 
to strike those who beheld him with reverence ; he 
adds, that after his death, Richard Skirret, Prior of 
Christ Church, according to custom, took the archi- 
episcopal cross into his custody, to be kept for the 
use of his successor. 



\ 



WILLIAM ROKEBY. 
[Succ. 1511. Ob. 1521.] 

William Rokeby, the succeeding archbishop, was 
a native of a locality of the same name in Yorkshire, 
which Sir Walter Scott has, perhaps, yet more dis- 
tinguished. He was a doctor of the canon law, and 
brother to Sir Richard Rokeby, Lord Treasurer of 
Ireland. The rudiments of his education are said 
to have been acquired at the school of Rotheram, 
whence he was removed to an ancient hostel for the 
reception of canonists in Aldgate parish, London. 
He was afterwards at Oxford, and, when very young, 
was presented by the monks of Lewes in 1487 to the 
rectory of Sandal, near Doncaster, his constant resi- 
dence in which may be inferred from the attachment 
he appears to have felt for it, even choosing it for his 
burial-place, and for the celebration of those sacred rites 
which he directed should for ever attend his comme- 
moration. At the close of the fifteenth century, he 
was by his former patrons, the monks of Lewes, 
nominated to the vicarage of Halifax, in Yorkshire ; 



WILLIAM ROKEBY. 179 

in 1 498 was constituted Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 
and afterwards advanced to the see of Meath, by Pope 
Julius the Second in 1507 5 whereupon he took his 
seat in the Privy Council. On the 5th of February, 
1511, he was by the same Pope "released from the 
tie which bound him to Meath" and translated to 
this see, the temporalities of which were upon the 
23rd of June following restored to him. 

In January, 1514, disputes, which had for a long 
time existed between the successive Archbishops of 
Dublin and the dean and chapter of St. Patrick's, re- 
lative to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, were brought to a 
final compromise ; the terms of which are fully set 
forth in Mr. Mason's valuable History of St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, (p. 143.) About the year 1515, Doctor 
Rokeby was made Chancellor of Ireland by King 
Henry the Eighth, an office which he seems to have 
filled during the remainder of his life. In 1518 he 
convened a provincial synod, whose canons are yet 
extant in the Red Book of the church of Ossory, and 
have been published thereout by Sir Henry Spel- 
man.* They particularly enjoined the due exami- 
nation of persons from Connaught and Ulster previous 
to admission to the priesthood; the payment of tithes, 
proxies, and burial dues; the discontinuance of tin 
chalices at the celebration of the Mass ; the appraise- 
ment of the goods of intestates by two valuators ap- 
pointed by the bishop ; prohibited the disposal of the 
property of the Church by laymen without the con- 

* Concilia, T. ii. p. 728. 

N 3 



ISO AHCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN 






currence of the clergy ; the playing of football by 
clergymen, under the penalty of 3s. 4d. to the ordi- 
nary, and 3s. 4d. to the repair of the parish church ; 
and directed that no lay exactions should be charged 
on glebes, except by royal authority. In the same 
year, this prelate confirmed the establishment of a 
college of clerks founded at Maynooth by Gerald 
Earl of Kildare, which he subsequently new modelled, 
having united the prebend to the mastership of the 
college, and the vicarage with the office of sub-master; 
and likewise added several rules for the government 
of the establishment.* In 1520 he was despatched 
by the Lord Deputy and Council to Waterford, " for 
the pacifying of such discords, debates, and variances, 
as existed betwixt the Earl of Desmond and Sir 
Piers Butler." " And right comfortable news it 
should be unto us," writes King Henry to his vice- 
roy, alluding thereto, " to hear and understand of a 
good concord betwixt them, so that they, being so 
pacified, might with their puissances join and attend 
personally with and upon you, our lieutenant, for 
your better assistance in repressing the temerities of 

our rebellious Irish enemies Now, at the 

beginning, politic practices may do more good than 
exploit of war, till such time as the strength of the 
Irish enemy shall be enfeebled and diminished, as 
well by getting their captains from them, as by put- 
ting division among them, so that they join not toge- 
ther."! 



* Mason's St. Patrick's Cathedral, p. 144. 

t State Paper*, temp. Hen. VIII. vol. ii. p. 34. 



WILLIAM ROKEBY. ISI 

Archbishop Rokeby died on the 29th of Novem- 
ber, 1521, having a few hours previous to his decease 
given to every one belonging to the priory of Christ 
Church, a piece of silver, as " a testimony of his 
blessing and prayers." On the day of his decease, 
the archiepiscopal crosier was, according to custom, 
sent to the prior of Christ Church, to be kept during 
the vacancy of the see. His body was immediately 
after his decease sent over to England, according to 
the direction of his will made six days before his 
death ; an abstract of which is given in the Athene 
Oxonienses. He therein styles himself Archbishop 
of Dublin, and perpetual vicar of Halifax, and orders 
that when dead he should be embowelled, and his 
bowels and heart buried in the church of Halifax, 
in the choir, and his body in his new chapel at San- 
dal, a fabric of singular beauty, and perhaps the most 
perfect existing specimen of what the sepulchral cha- 
pels of former times used to be; and he directed that 
therein a tomb of stone should be made, with a suit- 
able inscription, and that also a chapel should be 
built at Halifax, on the south side of the church, 
under the inspection of his executors and the church- 
wardens, and that therein another tomb should be 
constructed, with his image and a similar inscription. 
" Item, whereas he had obtained an indulgence for 
the parish of Halifax, and the parishes thereunto ad- 
joining, for eating white meats in Lent, he willed 
that his executors at their discretion should solicit 
for a renewal of the said licence sub plumbo, the pro- 
fit thereof to be employed on a priest to sing at 



182 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Halifax, in his said new chapel, as long as may be by 
the advice and discretion of his executors and the 
church-wardens, and that a doctor of divinity have 
ten pounds to be occupied in preaching, &c." In 
pursuance of this will, his heart was buried in the 
chancel of the church of Halifax, and a stone laid 
over it, with the figure only of a heart engraved upon 
it. The chapel was likewise founded, and a ceno- 
taph erected in it, on which is an inscription partly 
legible, stating all his preferments and the date of 
his death. A monument was also erected to his 
memory in the centre of the chapel of Sandal, wherein 
his earthly remains were deposited, according to the 
aforesaid provisions of his will.* 



HUGH INGE. 
[Succ. 1521. Ob. 1528.] 

Hugh Inge, Doctor of Divinity, succeeded Wil- 
liam Rokeby, twice by the Pope's appointment, first 
in Meath, and secondly on his translation thence to 
this dignity. He was born in Shepton Mallet in 
Somersetshire, educated in William of Wickham's 
school at Winchester, made perpetual Fellow of New 
College in Oxford in 1484, took his degrees there, 
and leaving it in 1496 travelled into foreign countries. 
On his return he was successively made prebendary 
of East Harptree, sub-chantor of the church of Wells, 
warden of Wapulham in the diocese of Lincoln, of 



* Hunter's South Yorkshire, vol, i. p, 200. 



JOHN INGE. 183 

Duttying in Somersetshire by the presentation of 
Richard the Abbot and the convent of Glastonbury, 
and of Weston, alias Sowey, by similar presentation. 
In 1504 he was in Rome, at which time he was one 
of King Henry's orators selected to take the renun- 
ciation of all prejudicial clauses in the apostolic bulls 
for the translation of Cardinal Hadrian to the sees of 
Bath and Wells, and his oaths of fealty and allegiance 
to that monarch. In April, 1511, he was incorpo- 
rated Doctor of Divinity at Oxford while he was 
beyond sea, and in 1512 was appointed Bishop of 
Meath, a dignity which he filled during ten years. 

In 1521 he succeeded Rokeby, and in 1522 was 
restored to all the profits of the see, the possessions 
of which in the county and city of Dublin were 
sought to be ascertained by an inquisition of the same 
year. In 1527 he was made Chancellor of Ireland, 
which office he administered to the day of his death, 
and wherein says Wood,* " he was accounted a per- 
son of great probity and justice ;" while Polydore 
Virgil, who calls him Hugo Hynk, gives him the 
character of " an honest man, and one who by many 
good offices had got a great share of intimacy and 
familiarity with the Earl of Kildare ;" and adds, that 
" he put the kingdom in as good condition as the un- 
towardness of the wild Irish would suffer him." He 
repaired the palace of St. Sepulchre, as his arms 
(says Ware), placed in the wall over the palace door 
at the entrance from the public library, seem to testify, 



* Athense Qxonienses, vol. ii. p. 732. 



184 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

and, having governed this see during six years, he 
died in Dublin on the 3rd of August, 1528, and was 
buried in St. Patrick's church. The complaint, of 
which he died, was the sudor Anglicus, the first ap- 
pearance of which distemper in these countries, toge- 
ther with its progress, ravages and cure, Polydore 
Virgil pathetically details. 

JOHN ALLEN. 
[Succ. 1528. Ob. 1534.] 

John Allen, or Alan, as he writes his own name, 
Doctor of Laws and Treasurer of St. Paul's, London, 
succeeded, and was consecrated in Christ Church, 
Dublin, on the 13th of March, 1528. He was edu- 
cated at Oxford, whence he removed to Cambridge, 
where he took his degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 
1507 he received the church of Sundrithe in the 
diocese of Kent. In 1510 was collated to that 
of Aldington in the same diocese, in which, on 
his promotion to the deanery of Riseburgh, in 
1511, he was succeeded by the celebrated Erasmus. 
In 1515 he was made rector of South Oxyndon 
in Essex, which he resigned in 1526, but previous 
thereto was employed by William Warham, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, as his agent at Rome to 
conduct his negotiations and business with the Pope ; 
he resided there nine years, and was created doctor 
of laws, either there or in some other university in 
Italy; and in 1525, while yet beyond the seas, was 
incorporated doctor of laws in Oxford. On his re- 
turn he was made chaplain to Cardinal Wolsey, Arch- 



JOHN ALLEN. 185 

bishop of York, and commissary or judge of his lega- 
tine court, at which period he was accounted " the 
only match for Stephen Gardiner, another of Wol- 
sey's chaplains, for avoiding of which emulation he 
was preferred in Ireland."* Immediately previous, 
however, to that preferment, he was one of Wolsey's 
great abettors in procuring the dissolution of forty of 
the lesser monasteries, for the endowment of the car- 
dinal's colleges at Oxford and Ipswich, a project, 
which, as the learned Godwin, Bishop of Hereford, 
remarks, " like the gold of Tholouse, brought either 
destruction or some great calamity on all who touched 
it." "Two of them/' he adds, " fought a duel, one was 
killed, and the other hanged, a third threw himself 
headlong into a well, a fourth, though a rich man, 
came after to beg his bread ; Wolsey was thrown out 
of the king's favour and died miserably, and the 
Pope, who gave his consent to the dissolution, lived 
to see Rome taken and plundered by the Imperial 
army, himself and cardinals made prisoners, and be- 
come the sport and mockery of the licentious mul- 
titude." Wood is particularly severe upon this pre- 
late for his unworthy and base dealing in the disso- 
lution of Daventry priory in Northamptonshire. f 

Indeed, the calmest and most impartial observer 
cannot recur to this period of history, without a feeling 
of horror at the consummation of royal robbery and 
sacrilege that attended it. The suppression of mo- 
nasteries has cast a shadow through centuries that 

* Campion. -j- Athense Oxonienses, vol. ii. p. 742. 



186 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

have ensued, and the empire, even yet, stands within 
its penumbra. Up to this period the extensive pos- 
sessions of these ecclesiastical communities were de- 
voted with an indiscriminate liberality, which, how- 
ever political economists may censure, was, undoubt- 
edly, universally designed for the benefit and relief 
of the people. The numerous parishes, that were an- 
nexed to their establishments (about one-fourth of 
the total in Ireland), were strangers to church rates 
and vestry assessments. An adequate proportion of 
their tithes was set apart for all the purposes, which 
afterwards became the pretext for these novel impo- 
sitions. Rarely had they to contribute to the found- 
ing of churches, the building of hospitals, or the en- 
dowment of schools. They knew not the callous 
cancer of such a poor law system as succeeded them 
in the sister country. The magnificent evidences of 
monastic bounty are over the face of the land : the 
churches — the abbeys — the colleges — the schools — 
the hospitals — the alms-houses still powerfully record 
their generous consideration of all that could promote 
the honour of God, the stability of virtue, the en- 
couragement of learning, the comfort of the sick, and 
the maintenance of the poor. Constantly residing in 
their convents, in the centre of their estates, the 
monks are acknowledged to have been the best and 
most indulgent landlords ; they afforded a ready 
market for the produce of the vicinity, and expended 
their whole rents amongst their tenants. They fed 
the poor and the sick ; they extended hospitality to 
the pilgrim and the stranger ; they educated the 






JOHN ALLEN. 18? 

young and the fatherless ; they dispensed to the aged 
and friendless the consolations of temporal and eter- 
nal refreshment ; they introduced agriculture and ma- 
nufactures ; they fostered the nobler arts, and withal, 
they never shrunk from their responsibility, when the 
exigencies of the state and the people appealed to 
their treasury. By their obligation of celibacy and 
the other rules of their institution, they were with- 
drawn from that temptation — these motives for exac- 
tion and aggrandizement, which mingle with the best 
feelings of the fathers of families. 

Suddenly, avarice and rapine were let loose upon 
them, their possessions were confiscated, and their 
pious acquisitions scattered abroad, their ornaments 
and furniture torn down, their libraries consumed, 
their houses unroofed, their churches disconsecrated. 
Perhaps, in all the range of calamities which human 
nature could incur, none can be imagined more 
strikingly affecting, than the dissolution of an abbey 
must have presented. How pathetically does the 
Roman historian describe the sufferings of the Al- 
bans, when they were driven from their ancient 
abodes, when their gates were broken down, and 
their walls laid prostrate, a licentious military rushing 
through their sanctuaries with fire and sword, and 
their own looks directed for the last time on the 
homes of their childhood and their happiness, while 
the crash, and smoke, and dust of the ruin burst 
upon their sight and their hearing. Yet, all these 
sufferings were endured by the unhomed monks ; 
but the former were allowed to rescue some conso- 



188 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



lations from the ruin ; they had ties in life which 
survived the destruction of their city, they carried 
with them their wives and their little children, they 
could look in each other's face and weep their 
sympathy, ("conspectus aliorum mutua miseratione 
integrabat lachrymas"), and, amidst all their outcast 
wretchedness, the temples of their gods were spared ; 
but the unfortunate exiles of the monastery saw the 
heaviest refinements of sacrilege levelled against the 
temples of the God of all, they felt the links of life, 
which in their circumstances are peculiarly local, 
severed at once, and yet more, they dared not mur- 
mur at the dispensation. They were driven forth, 
old and feeble, scattered and broken-hearted, over 
the country that had theretofore witnessed their 
hospitality and charity, and amidst the superadded 
groans and lamentations of those whom they had 
once cherished and succoured. The very charms of 
scenery, the habitudes of time, the long associations 
of piety, in a word all that was once attractive and 
endearing, became suddenly changed into bitterness 

and ashes. 

Their sufferings closed with a generation ; the 
calamity, as it affected the country, has been fearfully 
perpetuated. " When the abbey lands," writes Hume, 
" were distributed among the principal nobility and 
courtiers, they fell under a different management, 
the rents of farms were raised, while the tenants 
found not the same facility in disposing of the pro- 
duce, the money was often spent in the capital, and 
the farmers living at a distance, were exposed to 



JOHN ALLEN. 189 

oppressions from their new masters, or the still 
greater rapacity of their stewards." While, yet 
more, the legislative enactments, that were necessi- 
tated by the transfer of this property, sufficiently 
indicate the acknowledged duties of the old pro- 
prietors ; church rates and vestry acts flourished, 
and, while in England a code of regulations for the 
relief of the poor sprung into instantaneous maturity, 
the needy and destitute of the Irish population were 
utterly consigned to the compassion of an already 
otherwise overburdened resident community. 

The avowed and influential instrumentality of 
Allen in those disgraceful acts of spoliation may 
well justify the preceding remarks. It certainly so 
influenced the favour of Wolsey, that as well in gra- 
titude for his services, as in jealousy and opposition 
to the Earl of Kildare, he effected his advancement 
in September, 1528, to this dignity. Allen in the 

I same month had restitution of the temporalities of 
the see, and all the profits thereof from the death of 
his predecessor, without payment of the accustomed 
fines, and was likewise appointed Lord Chancellor. 
In 1529 (3rd of September) he was confirmed by 
the Pope in this see, and in 1530 held a consistory 
in Dublin, the statutes of which are preserved in 
the Black Book of Christ Church, where are also 
detailed the synodals and proxies then paid to this 
prelate. In said year he established rules for regu- 
lating his metropolitical court in St. Patrick's church, 
where it had been held from so early as the year 



190 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

1220.* In 1531 Archbishop Allen, being still like- 
wise Lord Chancellor, wrote a letter to Lord Crum- 
well, the following extracts from which may be inte- 
resting. " For the which your gentle manners I 
give you entire thanks, accordingly, no less now in 
heart, mouth, and writing, than I trust heretocome, 
if ever it fortune me to be able in deeds and acts 
effectually. In accomplishment whereof, and to the 
intent I may the sooner perform this my said un- 
feigned promise, I must instantly require you (iie- 
cessitas facit licitum quod alias est illicitwni), to move 
my sovereign lord, the king's good grace, to give 
unto me a prebend of £100 per annum, in commen- 
dam, to maintain the state that his highness hath 
called me unto, being primate of his Church in Ireland, 
and chancellor of the same, without my merits and 

by obedience, against my will truly And 

here with us, I cannot have the forty mark fee of the 
chancellorship, now two years and a half past, nor 
yet such money as I laid out upon the king's letters, 
as well for ships and mariners' wages, as for repara- 
tion done on the king's chancery, also his castle. 
Sir, afore God, I desire none translation, nor any 
manner of benefice of cure, or yet of dignity, but 
only (if it might please the king's highness to have 
some compassion upon me) a prebend which should 
cause no murmur of absenty from thence, whereby 
I might keep a dozen yeomen archers in wages and 
livery, when I lie in the marches upon the church 

* Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 146. 



JOHN ALLEN. 191 

lands, to keep me in the king's service from his Irish 

enemies and English rebels So knoweth 

God, who may send you (when I am out of half my 
debt) this next year, one hobby, one hawk, and one 
Limerick mantle, which three things be all the com- 
modities for a gentleman's pleasure in these par- 
ties."* 

In July, 1532, he was displaced from the chan- 
cery at the instance of Gerald Earl of Kildare, who, 
about the same time, was constituted deputy to Henry 
Duke of Richmond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 
which afforded an additional incentive for reviving 
the old animosities between them, while the earl's use 
of power caused too many to sympathize with the 
archbishop's feelings. They communicated their ap- 
prehensions to each other, and at secret consultations, 
at which the removed chancellor always took the lead, 
resolved to represent what they deemed the misgo- 
vernment of Kildare to his roval master. Accord- 
ingly in 1533 this prelate was one of the Privy 
Council, who signed a full representation of what 
they deemed grievances in Irish government, with a 
prayer for their redress. This singular document 
deplores " the great decay of this land, which is so 
far fallen into misery, and brought into such ruin, 
that neither the English order, tongue, nor habit be 
used, nor the king's laws obeyed above twenty miles 
in compass ;" and, amongst other articles, recommends 
" a resumption of the king's revenues from a certain 

* State Papers, temp. Hen. VIII. 



192 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

time hitherto, for by the importunate labours of those 
of this land, the king, and divers his noble progeni- 
tors have granted divers of them his revenues, so as 
now the remnant is little in effect, by means of which 
resumption, the subsidy and other things which, 
within three years, the deputy will get of Irishmen 
and otherwise, it is likely and, God willing, we doubt 
not there shall be revenues sufficient to maintain him 
without further charge to the king." It further 
advises " that all the lords and gentlemen within the 
four shires, that is to say, Dublin, Kildare, Meath, 
and Uriel (Louth), be compelled to obey the king's 
laws and all others as nigh as may be."* It also de- 
plores the immoderate taking of coin and livery with- 
out order after men's own sensual appetites. "Item, 
the black rents and tributes, which Irishmen by vio- 
lence hath obtained of the king's subjects, is a great 
mischief, whereby they be enriched and strengthened 
and the others greatly enfeeblished ; and yet, when 
the deputies go upon Irishmen by the aid of the 
king's subjects for redress of their nightly and daily 
robberies, they keep all they get to their own use, 
and restore nothing to the poor people. Item, ano- 
ther hurt is the committing the governance of this 
land to the lords natives of the same, and the often 
change of deputies." It also commented strongly on 
the negligences of the king's officers in keeping the 
records, their unskilful conduct in the exchequer, 
and above all impressed the necessity of sending to 

* State Papers, temp. Hen. VIII. 



JOHN ALLEN. 193 

the government of this country some loyal subject 
rom the realm of England, whose sole object they 
onsidered should be the honour and interest of 
he crown, unconnected with Irish factions and un- 
nfluenced by prepossession or prejudice. In the 
same year (1533) Archbishop Allen revived the 
Id dispute concerning precedence with Primate 
romer, who had been in the previous year consti- 
tuted Lord Chancellor on Allen's removal ; the 
result, however, does not appear, and the immediately 
subsequent events put an end to all controversies con- 
cerning bearing the cross. 

In the commencement of the year 1534, in the 
articles for the government of Ireland, it was " or- 
dained by the king and his most honourable council, 
that the lands of the spiritualty and benefices to all 
common charges of the country shall contribute, as the 
lands of the temporalty are charged ; and all lords and 
other persons of the spiritualty shall send companies 
to hostings and journeys in manner and form follow- 
ing : 
r The Archbishop of Armagh, sixteen able archers or 

gunners, appointed for the war. 
The Archbishop of Dublin, twenty. 

&c. &c. &c."* 

It was at this period that the Earl of Kildare, when 

summoned into England and directed to appoint a 

deputy, for whose loyalty he should be responsible, 

rashly selected for that high trust his eldest son 



* State Papers, temp. Hen. VIII. 

() 



194 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Thomas, (more popularly styled, from his luxurious 
apparel and gentle address, "the silken lord,") he 
being then a youth scarcely twenty years of age ; the 
enemies of the Geraldine party, of whom this prelate 
was one, immediately perceived the combustible mate- 
rial upon which they could work, and, when Lord 
Thomas's father was, in fact, cast into the Tower of 
London, there to remain until he cleared himself from 
the suspicions and crimes laid to his charge, they 
spread rumours widely abroad, that the Earl had been 
beheaded in England, and that Lord Thomas himself, 
his brothers, and uncles were in danger of the same 
fate. The imprudent youth was too easily excited 
by these suggestions, and formally surrendering the 
sword and the insignia of vice-regal authority to the 
Lord Chancellor in St. Mary's Abbey, he broke out 
into open rebellion, gathering together a tumultuous 
mob of soldiers, laid siege to Dublin, and wasted the 
surrounding country with fire and sword. Archbishop 
Allen, with other lords and officers of state of his po- 
litical opinions, affrighted at this convulsion, at first 
sought shelter in the castle under the protection of 
the constable, but, fearful of the result of the siege 
which Fitzgerald meditated against it, and reflecting 
that he of all others was most obnoxious to the rebels, 
the prelate took the resolution of flying into Eng- 
land, and actually embarked with that intent in a 
vessel from the adjacent haven at Dame's- Gate. By 
contrary winds, however, the carelessness of the sai- 
lors, or, what seems more probable, the treachery of 
the pilot, he was stranded near Clontarf, whence he 






JOHN ALLEN. 



195 



immediately hurried to the mansion of Mr. Holly- 
wood of Artane, whose extensive hospitality he com- 
memorates in his Repertorium Viride. On the 
way, however, he was intercepted, or as some insist, 
on the following morning was dragged out of the 
house of his entertainer, and there, " feeble for age 
and sickness, kneeling in his shirt and mantle, be- 
queathing his soul to God, his body to the traitors' 
mercy,"* he was, in the 58th year of his age, brutally 
murdered in the presence of Lord Thomas, on the 
28th of July, 1534. 

Ware characterizes him as a man of hospitality 
and learning, and a diligent inquirer into antiquities. 
He was the author of " Epistola de Pallii significa- 
tione activa et passiva," penned by him when he re- 
ceived the pall, as also of a work, entitled " De 
consuetudinibus ac statutis in tuitoriis causis obser- 
vandis," and other works.f He likewise compiled the 
Liber Niger, amine of antiquarian treasure as regards 
this diocese, and the Repertorium Viride, containing 
an account of the state of the churches thereof in his 
time, besides other ecclesiastical tracts. Immediately 
after his decease, Geoffrey Fyche, Dean of St. Pa- 
trick's, and William Hassard, Prior of the Holy Tri- 
nity, were appointed guardians of the spiritualities of 
the see, while Thomas Luttrel had a grant from the 
crown of the office of seneschal of all the courts, 



* Campion. See further as to this event, " The History of the 
County of Dublin," at the locality of" Artane." 
t Athenae Oxon., v. i. c. 76- 



o 2 



196 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

crosses or liberties of the archbishopric, " sede va- 
cante." 

Divine vengeance (says Ware) was not slow to 
punish the murder of this archbishop ; for, the flame 
of the rebellion being extinguished, Lord Thomas 
was sent in custody to London, and beheaded on the 
3rd of February, 1536. Five of his uncles, as aiding 
and abetting in his conspiracy, were hanged at Ty- 
burn, cut down half alive and quartered. Gerald, 
however, the young brother of Lord Thomas, who 
had been carried off to Italy, was by Edward the 
Sixth restored to the principal part of his estate, by 
Queen Mary to the ancient honours of his family, 
and by act of parliament, in the time of Queen Eli- 
zabeth, wholly relieved from the corruption of blood 
that was consequent on the attainder of his family. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 
[Succ. 1535. Depr. 1554.J 

After a vacancy of a few months from the death 
of Archbishop Allen, George Browne, an Augusti- 
nian friar of London, provincial there of that order, 
and one distinguished by his preaching of the tenets 
of the Reformation, was elected to fill this see, on 
the king's especial recommendation, by the chapters of 
Christ Church and St. Patrick's, and had the royal 
confirmation on the 12th of March, 1535. On the 
day following a mandate issued, commanding Cranmer, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of Ro- 
chester and Salisbury, to invest him with the pall 



GEORGE BROWNE. 197 

and other archiepiscopal insignia, according to an act 
then lately passed; and he having been thereupon 
consecrated on the 19th of the same month, a writ 
was on the 23rd directed to the Lord Chancellor of 
Ireland, commanding him to issue his mandate to the 
escheators of the counties of Dublin, Meath, Louth, 
and Kildare, to restore the revenues of his see to this 
prelate ; and on the same day, another writ issued to 
the escheator of the county of Stafford, to give up to 
him such temporalities of the archbishopric as lay 
within his bailiwick, being only the free chapel of 
Penkeris, before alluded to. 

The rudiments of George Browne's education 
were received in the house of his order, near Holy- 
well in Oxfordshire. In 1523 he supplicated for the 
degree of bachelor of divinity, but it does not ap- 
pear that he was then admitted ; having, however, af- 
terwards taken the degree of doctor of divinity in 
some university beyond sea, he was incorporated in 
the same degree at Oxford in 1534, and subsequently 
at Cambridge.* 

As might be expected from the complexion of his 
sermons in London, he at once avowed, on his promo- 
tion to this dignity, his profession of the tenets of the 
Reformation ; and, accordingly,when Henry renounced 
the power and supremacy of Rome, the Lord Thomas 
Crumwell, then lord privy seal, and who exercised all 
the rights annexed to the king's supremacy under 
the title of vicar-general of England, wrote to 

* Chalmers' Biog. Diet. 



198 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Browne, signifying from his highness, (then terming 
the king by that title), " that he was fallen absolutely 
from Rome in spiritual matters within his dominion 
of England, and how it was his royal will and plea- 
sure to have his subjects there in Ireland to obey his 
commands as in England," nominating, at the same 
time, said George Browne " one of his commissioners 
for the execution thereof." This prelate's reply was 
communicated not long after in the following words : 
" My most honoured lord, your humble servant, 
receiving your mandate as one of his highness's com- 
missioners, hath endeavoured, almost to the danger 
and hazard of this temporal life, to procure the no- 
bility and gentry of this nation to due obedience in 
owning of his highness their supreme head, as well 
spiritual as temporal, and do find much oppugning 
therein, especially by my brother, Armagh, who hath 
been the main oppugner, and so hath withdrawn 
most of his suffragans and clergy within his see and 
jurisdiction. He made a speech to them, laying a 
curse on the people whosoever should own his high- 
ness's supremacy, saying, that isle, as it is in their Irish 
chronicles, " insula sacra," belongs to none but the Bi- 
shop of Rome, and that it was the Bishop of Rome that 
gave it to the king's ancestors. There be two messen- 
gers by the priests of Armagh and by that archbishop 
now lately sent to the Bishop of Rome. Your lord- 
ship may inform his highness, that it is convenient to 
call a parliament in this nation to pass the supremacy 
by act, for they do not much matter his highnesses 
commission, which your lordship sent us over. This 



GEORGE BROWNE. 199 

island hath been for a long time held in ignorance 
by the Romish orders, and as for their secular or- 
ders, they be in a manner as ignorant as the people, 
being not able to say mass or pronounce the words, 
they not knowing what they themselves say in the 
Roman tongue. The common people of this isle are 
more zealous in their blindness, than the saints and 
martyrs were in truth at the beginning of the gos- 
pel. I send to you, my very good lord, these things, 
that your lordship and his highness may consult 
what is to be done. It is feared, O'Neill will be 
ordered by the Bishop of Rome to oppose your 
lordship's order from the king's highness, for the 
natives are much in numbers within his powers. T 
do pray the Lord Christ to defend your lordship 
from your enemies."* 

The prelate's advice for convening a parliament 
was warmly approved of by the king : previous, how- 
ever, to its assembling, Lord Leonard Grey, as Sir John 
Davis states, in order " to prepare the minds of the 
people to obey the laws, began forthwith a martial 
course, making a victorious circuit round about the 

kingdom The principal septs of the Irishry 

being all terrified, and most of them broken on their 
journey; many of their chief lords, upon this de- 
puty's return, came to Dublin and made their sub- 
mission to the crown of England. .... This pre- 
paration being made, he first propounded and passed 
in parliament those laws, which made the great altera- 

* Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 



200 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

tion in the " state ecclesiastical." It met in 1537? 
and, after passing an act of attainder against the Earl 
of Kildare and the associates of his rebellious son, 
proceeded to adjust the right of succession to the 
crown of England and lordship of Ireland* It then 
pronounced the marriage of the king with Catherine 
of Arragon to be clearly and absolutely against the 
laws of God, and utterly void and annihilated, and 
the sentence of separation by the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury to be good and effectual ; that, therefore, the 
marriage between his highness and his most dear and 
entirely beloved wife, Queen Anne, should be estab- 
lished true, sincere, and perfect ever hereafter, ac- 
cording to the just judgment of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, " confirmed as it was by the whole 
clergy of England, both the universities thereof, the 
universities of Bonogna, Padua, Paris, Orleans, Tho- 
louse, Anjou, and divers others, and also, by the pri- 
vate writings of many right excellent well learned 
men." The inheritance of the crown was also by 
this assembly declared to be in the king and his 
heirs by Queen Anne, and it was pronounced high 
treason to oppose this line of succession, misprision of 
treason to slander it, and an oath of allegiance was 
prescribed to be taken by the subjects of Ireland, for 
its better and more universal enforcement. Yet, 
scarcely had this act been promulgated, when intelli- 
gence having arrived of the condemnation and death 
of Anne Boleyn, and of the marriage of the king 
with the Lady Jane Seymour, the same legislators, 
with a tractability perfectly in unison with the wishes 



GEORGE BROWNE. 201 

of the sovereign and the sympathy of the English 
parliament, instantly repealed the above statute, and, 
by another, pronounced sentence of attainder on the 
late Queen, George Boleyn, Lord Rochfort, Henry 
Norris, Esq., Sir Erancis Weston, William Bereton, 
and Mark Smeaton, who had been accused as accom- 
plices in her alleged crimes. Both the former mar- 
riages were by this act declared null and void ; the 
succession confirmed anew to the heirs of the king by 
Queen Jane ; and, in default of such heirs, Henry was 
empowered to dispose of the inheritance of the crown 
of England and lordship of Ireland by letters patent 
or by will. With respect to the project of reformation, 
the king was declared supreme head on earth of the 
Church of Ireland, with power to visit, repress, redress, 
reform, &c, all errors, heresies and abuses, &c, and to 
appoint a deputy for visiting, repressing, &c, same. 
All appeals to Rome in spiritual causes were abo- 
lished ; the English law against slandering the king 
in consequence of these innovations, was enacted and 
confirmed in Ireland, the benefit of sanctuary taken 
away in such cases, the provisions made in England 
for the payment of first fruits to the king w T ere 
adopted, and his highness was invested, not only 
with the first fruits of bishoprics and other secu- 
lar promotions in the Church of Ireland, but with 
those of abbeys, priories, colleges, and hospitals. By 
another act the authority of " the Bishop of Rome" 
was more solemnlv renounced, and the maintainers of 
it in Ireland made subject to praemunire ; all officers 
of every kind and degree were directed to take the 



202 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

oath of supremacy, and every person, who should re- 
fuse it, declared as in England guilty of high treason ; 
all canons, constitutions, and dispensations, previously 
made, which were not repugnant to tne laws of the 
prerogative, were, however, directed to be still used, 
but in the name of the king only, until order to the 
contrary ; the twentieth part of the profits of all spi- 
ritual promotions were to be paid yearly to Henry, 
his heirs and successors for ever, and the chancellor 
was directed to inquire into the value thereof. All 
payment of pensions, and suing for dispensations, 
faculties, rescripts, &c, was utterly prohibited by 
adopting the English law made for this purpose, and 
accommodating it to Ireland. Thirteen religious es- 
tablishments were suppressed, and the demesnes and 
possessions thereof vested in the crown, as were those 
of absentee proprietors by an arbitrary extension of 
ancient enactments. A statute of the same session 
enjoined, that spiritual promotions should be given 
only to such as could speak English, unless after four 
proclamations in the next market-town such could 
not be had ; and that an oath should be administered 
to every person on admission to any dignity, bene- 
fice, &c, to keep " within the place, territory, or pa- 
rish, where he shall have pre-eminence, rule, bene- 
fice, or promotion, a school for to learn English, if 
any children of his parish come to him to learn the same, 
taking for the keeping of the same school such con- 
venient stipend or salary, as in the said land is accus- 
tomably used to be taken," and the administering 
and observing said oath was enforced by penalties. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 203 

Lastly, an act was passed prohibiting ecclesiastical 
proctors from being members of parliament, previous 
to which it appears, that two were returned to repre- 
sent each diocese. 

When the above act of supremacy was brought 
before this parliament, Archbishop Browne supported 
it most devotedly. " Behold," he said, " your obe- 
dience to your king is the observing of your God and 
Saviour Christ, for he, that High Priest of our souls, 
paid tribute to Caesar though no Christian, greater 
honour then surely is due to your prince's highness 
the king, and a Christian one. Rome and her bi- 
shops, in the Fathers' days, acknowledged emperors, 
kings, and princes to be supreme over their domi- 
nions, nay, Christ's own vicars ; and it is much to the 
shame of the Bishop of Rome, to deny what the pre- 
ceding bishops of that see owned." Adding, that he 
would himself, without scruple, guile of innocence, or 
sin to God, vote the king supreme over ecclesiastical, 
as well as temporal matters, and head thereof, even of 
both isles, England and Ireland, while he concluded 
with the characteristic argument, that he, who refused 
his assent to pass the act, could be no true subject of 
the king.* His address was seconded by Justice 
Brabazon, and the statu te,, although not without some 
difficulty, passed ; but Primate Cromer, remaining 
steadfast to the Roman Catholic faith, opposed its 
execution, and raised such obstacles thereto, that, not- 
withstanding this parliamentary renunciation of the 

* Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 



204 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Pope's, and acknowledgment of Henry's supremacy 
in matters of religion ; and, although all public op- 
position was silenced in every place where the Eng- 
lish power prevailed, yet, while this portion of the 
island was but very limited, the adherents to the Ro- 
man Catholic faith throughout the rest of Ireland be- 
came more zealous and more devoted. 

This determined recusancy and opposition to the 
wishes of the intolerant monarch, did not sufficiently 
justify in his eyes the conduct of the prelate whom 
he had exalted, and to whom he accordingly wrote 
the following expostulation, in July, 1537. " Right 
Reverend father in God, truly and w T ell beloved! 
We greet you well, signifying unto you, that where- 
as, before your promotion and advancement to that 
order, dignity, and authority of an archbishop, ye 
shewed an appearance of such entire zeal and affec- 
tion, as well to the setting forth and preaching the 
sincere word of God, and avoiding of all superstition 
used against the honour of the same, as to employ 
yourself always diligently for your part, to procure 
the good furtherance of any our affairs as much 
as in you lay, and might appear to be our content- 
ment and satisfaction, that thinking your mind to be 
so earnestly fixed upon the same, that ye would per- 
severe and continue still in that your good purpose ; 
yet, nevertheless, as we do both partly perceive, 
and partly by sundry ways and advertisements be 
informed, the good opinion that we had conceived of 
you is in manner utterly frustrate. For neither do 
ye give yourself to the instruction of our people 



GEORGE BROWNE. 205 

there in the word of God, nor frame yourself to 
stand us in any stead for the furtherance of our 
affairs, such is the lightness of your behaviour, and 
such is the elation of your mind in pride, that glory- 
ing in foolish ceremonies, and delighting in c we' 
and i us,' in your dream comparing yourself so near 
to a prince in honour and estimation, that all virtue 
and honesty is almost banished from you. Reform 
yourself therefore with this gentle advertisement, 
and do first your duty towards God, in the due 
execution of your office, do then your duty towards 
us in the advancement of our affairs there, and in the 
signification hither from time to time of the state of 
the same, and we shall put your former negligence 
in oblivion. If this will not serve to induce you to 
it, but, that ye will still so persevere in your fond 
folly and ingrate ungentleness, that ye cannot re- 
member what we have done, and how much above 
many others ye be bound in all the points before 
touched to do your duty, let it sink into your remem- 
brance, that we be as able for the not doing thereof 
to remove you again, and to put another man of 
more virtue and honesty in your place, both for our 
discharge against God, and for the comfort of our 
good subjects there, as we were at the beginning to 
prefer you, upon hope that you would in the same 
do your office, as to your profession and our opinion 
conceived of you appertaineth. ,,# 

Seriously alarmed by such a letter from a so- 

* State Papers, temp. Hen. VIII. 



206 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

vereign, who deemed his lightest wish an incontro- 
vertible command^ the prelate replied on the 27th 
of September following. " May it please your most 
excellent highness to be advertised, that on the 11th 
day of September I received your most gracious 
letters, bearing date at your majesty's manor of 
Sunning-hill, the last day of July, which perused, did 
not only cause me to take fruitful and gracious moni- 
tions, but also made me to tremble in body for fear 
of incurring your majesty's displeasure. And where 
your majesty write th unto me, I have not endeavoured 
myself in setting forth and preaching the sincere 
word of God, avoiding all superstition used against 
the honour of the same, I may signify unto your 
highness of a verity, that for my small abode here, 
there hath not these many years any my predeces- 
sors so much exercised in declaring to the people the 
only gospel of Christ, persuading and inducing the 
hearers unto the true meaning of the same, utterly 
despising the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, 
being a thing not a little rooted among the inhabi- 
tants here. Touching the second article in your 
grace's letters, concerning your majesty's affairs here, 
I refer me to judgment for the most part of your 
highness's council here, how in that behalf I have 
used myself, being the first spiritual man that moved 
the twentieth parts and first fruits, setting forth, in 
what me lay, the like first fruits of all monasteries 
being before not motioned. But given is it to this 
land, miserable of what behaviour or gesture so ever 
men be, to have maligners ; yea, those that be of such 



GEOUGE BROWNE. 207 

subtle nature, that of others' good proceedings them- 
selves can find means to win the praises, which, if 
their doings were apparent, God knoweth right 
unworthy, that I beseech God, send once amongst 
us more charity. Concerning the third and last 
article of your grace's letters, that I should use wri- 
ting ' we' and ' us,' I trust it hath not been seen 
in me, unless it were at such time, as I with my two 
chapters of Christ Church and St. Patrick's, directed 
our humble letters unto your highness, subscribed 
with all our names, concerning the accomplishment 
of your grace's letters to the said chapters and me, 
addressed for electing the dean of St. Patrick's, 
which, if I did, most humbly beseech your highness to 
take it in good part, for assuredly, it was by remiss- 
ness of the writer, and great oblivion of my fore- 
seeing the same, submitting my negligence unto 
your grace upon my demeanour hereafter. Finally, 
certifying your majesty, that I received your grace's 
other letters, at this season to me addressed, on be- 
half of Edward Vaughan, the queen's gracious ser- 
vant, the contents whereof I have fully accomplished. 
Beseeching your highness of your most accustomed 
goodness, to accept this my rude letter, answerable 
even as I were personally doing my duty, approach- 
ing on knees before your majesty, declaring the 
certainty of all the premises, with knowledging my 
ignorances, desiring of God, that hour or minute I 
should prefix myself to declare the gospel of Christ, 
after any other sort than of my part most unworthy 
have heretofore done before your majesty, in rebu- 



208 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

king the papistical power, or in any other point con- 
cerning the advancement of your grace's affairs 
should not be prompt to set forth benignly, that the 
ground should open and swallow me. Certain sacra- 
mentaries there be here, which, indeed, I have spoken 
against, perceiving well, that I have been the more 
maligned at, beseeching the blessed Trinity to give 
them better grace, and that your grace may see re- 
dress, as, when it shall be your determinated pleasure, 
your majesty may. So knoweth God, who preserve 
your excellent highness in your regality long to per- 
severe."* 

Justly fearful of the tyrant he had bound himself 
to obey, and conscious how ineffective were all his 
exertions to introduce the tenets of the Reformation 
into the hearts of those, over whom he was appointed 
to preside, Archbishop Browne, on the succeeding 
8th of January, writes as follows to Lord Crumwell : 
" Right honourable and my singular good lord, my 
bounden duty premised, it may please your lordship 
to be advertised, that within the parts of Ireland, 
which grieveth me very sore — yea, and that within 
the diocese of Dublin, and province of the same, 
where the king's power ought to be best known, 
where it hath pleased his most excellent highness, 
through your good lordship's preferment, to make 
me, under his grace, a spiritual officer and chief over 
the clergy ; yet, that notwithstanding, neither by 
gentle exhortation, evangelical instruction, neither by 

* State Papers, temp. Henry VIII. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 209 

oaths of them solemnly taken, nor yet by threats of 
sharp correction, can I persuade or induce any, either 
religious or secular, since my coming over, once to 
preach the word of God or the just title of our most 
illustrious prince. And yet, before that our most 
dread sovereign was declared to be (as he ever was 
in deed) supreme head over the Church committed 
unto his princely cure, they, that then could and 
would very often, even till the right Christians were 
weary of them, preach after the old sort and fashion, 
will not now once open their lips in any pulpit for 
the manifestation of the same ; but in corners and 
such company as them liketh, hindereth and plucketh 
back amongst the people the labour that I do take in 
that behalf; and yet they be borne against me, and 
especially the observants, which be worst of all others ; 
for I can neither make them swear, nor yet preach 
amongst us, so little regard they mine authority. And 
that cometh, so far as I can judge, of the extreme 
handling that my lord deputy hath used towards me, 
what by often imprisonment, and also expelling me 
my own house, keeping there no hospitality at all ; 
and so contemptuously he vilipendeth me, that I take 
God to record I had, but that hope comforteth 
me, rather forsake all than to abide so many ignomi- 
nious reproaches. But, if your lordship would, for 
the good love and mind that you bear unto the mere 
and sincere doctrine of God's word, and also unto 
the advancement and setting forward of our most 
excellent prince's right title, send either unto master 
treasurer, the chief justice, the master of the rolls, or 

p 



210 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

any two of them whom I think meet for that pur- 
pose, such a straight commandment over me and all 
other ecclesiastical persons, as I perceive the king's 
grace hath sent of late into England to the sheriffs of 
every shire, I would (God willing) so execute mine 
own office, and prick others forward that be un- 
derneath me, by the authority thereof, that his grace 
and your lordship should well allow my faithful heart 
and diligent service ; for, until such a thing or more 
vehement come amongst us, it is but vain to look after 
any amendment here, but always expectation of the for- 
mer abuses. And to prove the same, there is never an 
archbishop, nor bishop but myself made by the king, 
but he is repelled even now by provision. Again, 
for all that ever I could do, might I not make them 
once, but as I send my own servants to do it, to can- 
cel out of the canon of the mass, or other books, the 
name of the Bishop of Rome, whereby your lordship 
may perceive, that my authority is little regarded. I 
have advertised your lordship divers times what in- 
convenience might fall for lack of dispensations ; for, 
in that point they be compelled to sue to Rome. 
Wherefore, I think good that with all celerity and 
speed it were necessary that we had dispensations, a 
vicar general, and a master of the faculties. There is 
of late come into Ireland from Rome a pardon, much 
consonant to a pardon granted by Julius the Second, 
in time of the wars between the French kins: and 
him; and that was, that they, that would enjoy it, 
should fast Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, next 
after they heard first of it, and on the Sunday conse- 



! 



GEORGE BROWNE. 211 

quently ensuing to receive the communion. And 
many, as it is reported, hath received the same ; but 
if so traditorous a fact and like flagitious iniquities 
should pass, neither justly examined nor condignly 
punished, being committed while the king's grace's 
commissioners be here, seeing these men so ready 
and prompt to admit the Bishop of Rome's letter, and 
so sturdy and flinty against our prince's power, what 
will men think? I cannot, in my conscience, consider- 
ing my oath and allegiance, let such enormities 
escape, but make just relation, that the king's ma- 
jesty may have sure knowledge how unfaithful a sort 
he hath in this land, and namely, the spiritualty, 
which seduceth the rest. The living God knoweth 
my heart, who ever prosper your lordship with im- 
mortal felicity. Amen."* 

While this letter eloquently evinces what little 
progress the Reformation had made under Doctor 
Browne's auspices, and that the inferior clergy had 
neither imbibed his spirit nor acceded to his mea- 
sures, it does yet more plainly appear that he him- 
self, up to this period, aimed at little more than 
the acknowledgment of the king's supremacy as the 
paramount measure of ecclesiastical improvement. 
The truth of this conclusion may be testified by his 
correspondence as detailed in this memoir, and yet 
more by the following instructions for praying in this 
diocese, or as they werestyled "the form of the beads," 
issued and designed by this prelate for all the incum- 



State Papers, temp. Hen. VIIT. 

p 2 



212 ARCHBTSHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

bents and curates thereof: — " You shall pray for the 
Universal Catholic Church, both quick and dead, and 
especially for the Church of England and Ireland. 
First for our Sovereign Lord the King, supreme head 
on earth immediate under God of the said Church of 
England and Ireland. And for the declaration of 
the truth thereof you shall understand, that the un- 
lawful jurisdiction, power, and authority, of long time 
usurped by the Bishop of Rome in England and Ire- 
land, who then was called Pope, is now by God's law 
justly, lawfully, and upon good grounds, reasons, and 
causes, by authority of parliament and by and with the 
whole consent and agreement of all the bishops, pre- 
lates, and both the universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, and also the whole clergy both of England 
and Ireland, extinct and ceased for ever, as of no 
strength, value, or effect in the Church of England 
or Ireland. In the which Church the said whole 
clergy, bishops, and prelates, with the universities of 
Oxford and Cambridge, have, according to God's 
law and upon good and lawful reasons and grounds, 
acknowledged the king's highness to be supreme head 
on earth immediately under God of this Church of 
England and Ireland, which their knowledge con- 
fessed being now by parliament established, and by 
God's laws justifiable to be justly executed, so ought 
every true Christian subject of this land not only to 
acknowledge and obediently recognise the king's 
highness to be supreme head on earth of the Church 
of England and Ireland ; but also to speak, publish, 
and teach their children and servants the same, and 



GEORGE BROWNE. 213 

to show unto them how that the said Bishop of Rome 
hath heretofore usurped not only upon God, but also 
upon our princes. Wherefore and to the intent that 
ye should the better believe me herein, and take and 
receive the truth as ye ought to do, I declare this unto 
you not only of myself, which I know to be true, but 
also declare unto you that the same is certified unto 
me from the might of my ordinary, the Archbishop 
of Dublin, under his seal, which I have here ready to 
show you, so that now it appeareth plainly, that the 
said Bishop of Rome hath neither authority nor 
power in this land, nor never had by God's laws ; 
therefore I exhort you all, that you deface him in all 
your primers and other books where he is named 
Pope, and that you shall have from henceforth no 
confidence nor trust in him nor in his bulls or letters 
of pardon, which before time with his juggling casts 
of binding and loosing he sold unto you for your mo- 
ney, promising you therefore forgiveness of your sins, 
where of truth no man can forgive sins but God only ; 
and also that ye fear not his great thunder claps of 
excommunication or interdiction, for they cannot 
hurt you, but let us put all our confidence and trust 
in our Saviour Jesus Christ, which is gentle and lov- 
ing, and requireth nothing of us when we have 
offended him, but that we should repent and forsake 
our sins, and believe steadfastly that he is Christ, the 
Son of the living God, and that he died for our sins, 
and soforth, as it is contained in the Credo ; and that 
through him and by him, and by none other, we shall 
have remission of our sins, ' a poena et culpa,' according 



214 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

to his promises made to us in many and divers places 
of Scripture. On this part ye shall pray also for the 
prosperous estate of our young prince, prince Edward, 
with all other the king's issue and posterity, and for 
all archbishops and bishops, and especially for my lord 
archbishop of Dublin, and for all the clergy, and 
namely for all them that preacheth the word of God 
purely and sincerely. On the second part ye shall 
pray for all earls, barons, lords, and in especial for 
the estate of the right honourable Lord Leonard Gray, 
Lord Deputy of this land of Ireland, and for all them 
that be of the king's most honourable council, that 
God may put them in mind to give such counsel, that 
it may be to the pleasure of Almighty God and 
wealth of this land. Ye shall pray also for the mayor 
of this city and his brethren, with all the commonalty 
of the same, or for the parishioners of this parish, and 
generally for all the temporality. On the third part 
ye shall pray for the souls that be departed out of 
this world in the faith of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
which sleep in rest and peace, they may rise again 
and reign with Christ in eternal life. For those and 
for grace every man may say a Pater Noster and an 
Ave."* 

At the close of the same year this prelate, as one 
of the king's council, despatched a letter commending 
to lord Crum well's good offices Sir Edward Basnet, then 
a prebendary of St. Patrick's cathedral, and urging 
his Majesty to induce the then dean of St. Patrick's, 
Geoffrey Fyche, " being aged and impotent, and he 

* State Papers, temp. Hen. VIII. 






GEORGE BROWNE. 215 

not able to defend the revenues of the same lying in 
the marches," to resign his dignity, in order that the 
preferment might be open for said Basnet, " a man 
meet and active for that intent and defence also of 
the country." In the same despatch he entreated 
the king to write 6i semblaby to the chapter, exhort- 
ing them upon such resignation made to elect such a 
person as their archbishop should name unto them, 
without expressing or making mention of the said Sir 
Edward in the same letter, least the chapter, being in 
manner all native of this land, and beforehand admo- 
nished that the intent was to have an Englishman 
preferred thereunto, would so consult together as the 
same should take no effect."* The opportune deatli 
of Dean Fyche in less than two months made the con- 
summation of this disgraceful intrigue unnecessary, and 
Basnet was thereupon appointed his successor. That 
Crum well's good service, however, was neither gratui- 
tous, nor to be unrequited by this termination of the 
affair, is evinced by a letter of the vice-treasurer 
Brabazon to him, dated on the 24th of April follow- 
ing, in which, alluding to the remittance of money to 
Ireland, he desires his lordship " to detain £40 ster- 
ling for his lordship's good will in the preferment of 
his bedeman, Sir Edward Basnet, to the room of the 
dean of St, Patrick's here." Yet withal so unworthy 
was Basnet to be the object of this selection, that 
when King Henry resolved on the dissolution of St. 
Patrick's cathedral, he was the dean who, unlawfully 



State Papers, temp. Hen, VIIL 



216 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

and by actual force and imprisonment of the members 
of the chapter, effected the surrender of all its reve- 
nues, estates, and possessions to the crown, circum- 
stances that so inflamed the honest indignation of his 
successor, Dean Swift, that, writing on the back of 
one of the deeds connected with the transaction, he 
stiles him " the scoundrel who surrendered the 
deanery to that beast, Henry the Eighth."* 

Early in the year 1538 he again communicated to 
Lord Crumwell his vexation of spirit at the ill success 
of the Irish Reformation. " Right honourable and my 
singular good lord, I acknowledge my bounden duty 
to your lordship's good will to me next to my Saviour 
Christ's for the place I now possess. I pray God 
give me his grace to execute the same to his glory 
and his highness's honour, with your lordship's in- 
structions. The people of this nation are zealous yet 
blind and unknowing; most of the clergy, as your 
lordship hath had from me before, being ignorant 
and not able to speak right words in the mass or 
liturgy, as being not skilled in the Latin grammar, so 
that a bird may be taught to speak with as much 
sense as several of them do in this country. These 
sorts, though not scholars, yet are crafty to cozen the 
poor people, and to dissuade them from following his 
highness's orders ; George, my brother of Armagh, 
doth underhand occasion quarrels, and is not active 
to execute his highness's orders in his diocese. I 
have observed your lordship's letter of commission, 

* Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 150. 



GEORGE BROWNE, 217 

and do find several of my pupils leave me for so do- 
ing ; I will not put others in their livings till I do 
know your lordship's pleasure, for it is meet I ac- 
quaint you first, that the Romish relics and images of 
both my cathedrals in Dublin took off the common 
people from the true worship, but the prior and the 
dean find them so sweet for their gain that they heed 
not my words. Therefore send, in your lordship's 
next to me, an order more full and a chide to them 
and their canons that they might be removed. Let 
the order be that the chief governors may assist me in 
it. The prior and dean have written to Rome to be 
encouraged, and if it be not hindered before they 
have a mandate from the Bishop of Rome, the people 
will be bold, and then tug long before his highness 
can submit them to his grace's orders. The country 
folk here much hate your lordship, and despitefully 
call your lordship in their Irish tongue 6 the black- 
smith's son.' The Duke of Norfolk is by Armagh 
and that clergy desired to assist them not to suffer his 
highness to alter church rules here in Ireland. As a 
friend I desire your lordship to look to your noble 
person, for Rome hath a great kindness for that duke, 
(for it is so talked here,) and will reward him and his 
children; Rome hath great favours for this nation, 
purposely to oppose his highness, and so have they 
got, since the act passed, great indulgences for rebel- 
lion ; therefore my hope is lost, yet my zeal is to do 
according to your lordship's orders. God keep your 
lordship from your enemies here and in England. 



218 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Your lordship's at commandment, &c."* About the 
same time he wrote to the lord chancellor Allen the 
letter concerning the stations kept at St. John's well, 
as detailed in the History of the County of Dublin, 
p. 635 ; and another letter of his to lord Crumwell, 
relative to the suppression of the monasteries, and 
seeking a grant of that of Grace Dieu, with all its 
possessions, for himself, has been alluded to at that 
locality in the said work ; while, in order better to 
testify his claims on royal favour, he about this time 
caused the before-mentioned images to be removed 
from Christ Church, and the celebrated relic called 
St. Patrick's staff, which had been carried off from 
the cathedral of Armagh in the twelfth century, and 
was from that time reverentially preserved in the 
former church, was by his direction publicly burned 
in High-street, Dublin. 

Soon after the intelligence reached the Castle, 
that the Pope had sent over a bull of excommunication 
against all those who had theretofore or should there- 
after maintain the king's supremacy, whereupon Arch- 
bishop Browne again wrote li To the lord privy seal 
with speed. — My lord, my duty premised, it may please 
your lordship to be advertised, since my last there has 
come to Armagh and his clergy a private commission 
from the Bishop of Rome, prohibiting his gracious 
highness's people here in this nation to own his royal 
supremacy, and joining a curse to all them and theirs 



* Harleian Miscellanv, vol. v. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 219 

who shall not within forty days confess to their con- 
fessors, after the publishing of it to them, that they 
have done amiss in so doing. The substance, as our 
secretary hath translated the same into English, is — 
6 1, A. B. from this present hour forward, in the pre- 
sence of the Holy Trinity, of the Blessed Virgin 
mother of God, of St. Peter, of the holy apostles, 
archangels, angels, saints, and of all the holy host of 
heaven, shall and will be always obedient to the holy 
see of St. Peter of Rome, and to my holy lord the 
Pope of Rome and his successors, in all things as well 
spiritual as temporal, not consenting in the least that 
his holiness shall lose the least title or dignity belong- 
ing to the papacy of our mother Church of Rome or 
to the regality of St. Peter. I do vow and swear to 
maintain, help, and assist the just laws, liberties, and 
rights of the mother Church of Rome. I do likewise 
promise to confer, to defend, and promote, if not 
personally yet willingly as in ability able, either by 
advice, skill, estate, money, or otherwise, the Church 
of Rome and her laws against all whatsoever resisting 
the same. I further vow to oppugn all heretics, 
either in making or setting forth edicts or commands 
contrary to the mother Church of Rome, and, in case 
any such be moved or composed, to resist it to the 
uttermost of my power with the first conveniency and 
opportunity I can possibly. I count and value all 
acts made or to be made by heretical powers of no 
force or worth, or to be practised or obeyed by myself 
or by any other son of the mother Church of Rome. 
I do further declare him or her, father or mother, 



220 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

brother or sister, son or daughter, husband or wife, 
uncle or aunt, nephew or niece, kinsman or kinswo- 
man, master or mistress, and all others nearest and 
dearest relations, friends, or acquaintance whatsoever 
accursed, that either do or shall hold for the time to 
come any ecclesiastical or civil power above the au- 
thority of the mother Church, or that do or shall 
obey for the time to come any of her the mother of 
Churches' opposers or enemies, or contrary to the 
same of which I have here sworn unto. So God, 
the Blessed Virgin, St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Holy 
Evangelists help, &c.' His highness' viceroy of this 
nation is of little power with the old natives, therefore 
your lordship will expect of me no more than lam able. 
This nation is poor in wealth, and not sufficient now 
at present to oppose them. It is observed that ever 
since his highness's ancestors had this nation in 
possession, the old natives have been craving foreign 
power to assist and rule them, and now both English 
race and Irish race begin to oppose your lordship's 
orders, and do lay aside their national old quarrels, 
which I fear will, if any thing will, cause a foreign 
power to invade this nation. I pray God I may be 
a false prophet, yet your good lordship must pardon 
my opinion, for I write to your lordship as a warning. 
" Your humble and true servant, 
"May, 1538. " George Browne."* 

On the following 24th of June, (1538), in the 
zealous exercise of his mission, this prelate seized a 

* Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 221 

Franciscan friar, named O'Brien, about whose person 
was found a letter, purporting to be from the Bishop of 
Meath to O'Neill, and couched in the following 
words: "My son, O'Neill, thou and thy fathers were 
all along faithful to the mother Church of Rome. His 
holiness Paul, now Pope, and the council of the Car- 
dinals there, have lately found out a prophecy there 
remaining of one St. Laserianus, an Irish Bishop of 
Cash el, wherein he saith, 'that the mother Church of 
Rome falleth, when in Ireland the Catholic faith is 
overcome ;' therefore, for the glory of the mother 
Church, the honour of St. Peter, and your own se- 
cureness, suppress heresy and his holiness's enemies ; 
for, when the Roman faith there perisheth, the see 
of Rome falleth also ; therefore, the council of Car- 
dinals have thought fit to encourage your country 
of Ireland, as a sacred island, being certified, whilst 
the mother Church hath a son of worth, as yourself, 
and of those that shall succour you, and join therein, 
that she will never fall, but have more or less a 
holding in Britain, in spite of fate. Thus, having 
obeyed the order of the most sacred council, we re- 
commend your princely person to the Holy Trinity, 
the Blessed Virgin, St. Peter, St. Paul, and all the 
heavenly host of heaven. Amen."* On further 
examination and searches made, but which elicited 
no other evidence of guilt, this friar was pilloried 
and sentenced to imprisonment, until his highness's 
full order should be received for his trial ; but, be- 

* Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 



222 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

fore any such intimation arrived, he was found dead 
in his prison, having, as it was industriously alleged, 
been accessary to his own decease ; the corse, how- 
ever, was carried to the Gallows-green, there sus- 
pended, and afterwards buried. 

Leland asserts, that O'Neill, immediately upon 
this commission, placed himself at the head of the 
northern Irish, " declared war against the invaders of 
the Papal rights, led his forces through the terri- 
tories of Meath, denouncing the terrors of his princely 
vengeance against all the enemies of religion, and 
committing various excesses without control or re- 
sistance, and, advancing to Tara, reviewed his troops, 
with an ostentatious display of their numbers and 
prowess." " But these champions of the Church," he 
adds, " exhausted all their zeal in this vain-glorious 
defiance of English government. Instead of pro- 
ceeding in any well concerted scheme of hostilities, 
they seemed contented with the havoc they had 
made, and the prey they had collected, and marched 
back in triumph towards their own settlements."* 
Whatever obscurity is thrown over the designs and 
actions of O'Neill, the re-action of hostility was cer- 
tainly more clearly evinced. The Lord Deputy ha- 
rassed the retreat of the fugitives, gave them battle 
at the pass of Bellahoe, and slew four hundred of 
their number. Nor did this suffice, as appears from 
a despatch of Lord Grey soon afterwards, wherein 
he says, " If my guides had guided right, I had 

* Letand's Ireland, vol. ii. p. 179. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 223 

taken or slain O'Neill ; howbeit the guides missed 
the way, so that the day broke up when I was within 
five miles of the said Dungannon, and then I fell 
to preying and burning of his country, and so conti- 
nued six days after, burning and destroying, during 
which time I and my company lacked no flesh, but 
bread, and drink except water, was scarce."* In vain 
did the unfortunate O'Neill appeal to his king, ac- 
cusing the deputy of waging this war for his private 
gain, and offering to restrain all the Northern Irish, 
if his Majesty would but relieve him and them from 
the extortions of his viceroy ;f but this is matter 
beyond the track of these memoirs, and must be 
avoided. 

Returning therefore to the archbishop. At the 
close of the year 1 538, " on New Year's Day, at 
Kilkenny, he preached the word of God, having very 
good audience, publishing the king's injunctions and 
the king's translation of the Pater Noster and Ave 
Maria, the Articles of the Faith and Ten Command- 
ments in English, divers papers whereof the council 
delivered to the bishop and other prelates of the 
diocese, commanding them to do the like through all 
their jurisdictions."^ About this time a new taxation 
took place of the dignities and benefices within the 
see of Dublin, in which the archbishopric was rated 
at £534 155. 2^d. Irish, and other dignities and 
benefices were charged anew, on different scales and 



* Stale Papers, temp. Hen, VIII. t lb. X lb. 



224 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

principles of assessment from what had been formerly 
appointed. 

In 1540, Browne was one of the council who ad- 
vised his majesty to assume the title of King of Ire- 
land. " Forasmuch as your majesty hath exhausted 
so great treasure for the reducing of this poor land 
to good order and civility, we think that if it may so 
stand with your majesty's pleasure, that it were good 
that your majesty were from henceforth called King 
of Ireland ; where unto we think, that in effect, all 
the nobility and other inhabitants of this your land 
would agree, and we think that they that be of the 
Irishry would more gladly obey your highness by 
name of king of this your land, than by the name of 
lord thereof; having had heretofore a foolish opinion 
amongst them, that the Bishop of Rome should be 
king of the same. For extirping whereof, we think 
it meet, under your highness's pardon, that by au- 
thority of parliament it should be ordained, that 
your majesty, your heirs and successors, should be 
named kings of this land, which, nevertheless, we 
remit to your most excellent wisdom."* At the 
close of the same year, when the Lord Deputy St. 
Leger journeyed to meet the Earl of Desmond at 
Cashel, this prelate was sent as one of the pledges 
and hostages which that nobleman required, as the 
guarantee of his safety, before he would place him- 
self within the English lines.f 

* State Papers, temp. Hen. VIIL f lb. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 225 

In 1541 he was one of the archbishops who sat 
in the parliament, that met in accordance with his 
advice and established Henry's title of King of 
Ireland, as communicated in the following despatch 
of the Lord Deputy Saint Leger. " According my 
most humble and obedient duty, it may please your 
most excellent majesty to be advertised, that the 
morrow after Trinity Sunday your highness's par- 
liament begun in this your highness's realm, and for 
that, the Earls of Ormonde and Desmond, and 
many other lords of Munster were not then come, 
we deferred the solemn mass of the Holy Ghost till 
the Thursday following, being Corpus Christi day 
The said earls, with divers other Lords of Munster? 
as the Lord Barry, the Lord Roche, the Lord Fitz 
Maurice, the Lord Bermingham, and Magill- Patrick, 
now made by your highness Baron of Upper Ossory, 
came the Tuesday, and were all present at the said 
mass, the most part of them in their robes, and rode 
in procession in such sort, as the like thereof hath 
not been seen here of many years. And the Fri- 
day following, being assembled in the place of par- 
liament accustomed, the commons presented unto 
us their speaker, one Sir Thomas Cusack, a man that 
right painfully hath served your majesty at all times, 
who made a right solemn proposition in giving such 
laud and praise to your majesty, as justly and most 
worthily your majesty hath merited, as well for the ex- 
tirpation of the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome 
out of this your realm, who had of many years been a 
great robber and destroyer of the same, as also for your 

Q 



226 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

innumerable benefits showed unto your realms and 
subjects of the same, which proposition was right 
well and prudently answered by your highness's 
chancellor here ; and after, both the effect of the 
proposition and answer was briefly and prudently 
declared in the Irish tongue to the said lords, by the 
mouth of the Earl of Ormonde, greatly to their con- 
tentation. And that done, and the said speaker and 
commons withdrawn, it was by me your poor servant 
proposed, that forasmuch as your majesty had always 
been the only protecter and defender under God of 
this realm, that it was most meet, that your majesty 
and your heirs should from thenceforth be named 
and called king of the same, and caused the bill de- 
vised for the same to be read, which once being read 
and declared to them in Irish, all the whole house 
most willingly and joyously condescended and agreed 
to the same, and being three times read, and with 
one voice agreed, we sent the same to the lower 
house, wherein likewise it passed with no less joy 
and willing consent. And upon the Saturday fol- 
lowing, the same bill being read in plain parliament 
before the lords and commons, it was by me your 
most humble servant most joyously consented, no less 
to my comfort, than to be again risen from life to 
death, that I so poor a wretch should by your ex- 
cellent goodness be put to that honour, that in my 
time your majesty should most worthily have another 
imperial crown. I most humbly beseech Almighty 
God long to continue your majesty in the honour he 
hath hitherto maintained you in. There was at the 



GEORGE BROWNE, 227 

same consent two earls, three viscounts, sixteen 
barons, two archbishops, twelve bishops, Donogh 
O'Brien, and the Doctor O'Nolan, and a bishop, 
deputies assigned by the great O'Brien, to be for 
him in the parliament, the great O'Reilly, with 
many other Irish captains, and the common house, 
wherein are divers knights, and many gentlemen of 
fair possessions. And for that the thing passed so 
joyously, and so much to the contentation of every 
person, the Sunday following there were made in 
the city great bonfires, wine set in the streets, great 
feastings in their houses, with a goodly sort of guns ; 
and for that all men should have the more cause to 
rejoice, I with others of your majesty's council 
thought it good, that all prisoners, not lying at suit 
of any party for debt or such like, should be freely 
delivered out of the prisons wherein they were, un- 
less it were for treason, wilful murder, rape, or debt. 
And the said Sunday all your lords and gentlemen 
rode to your church of St. Patrick's, where was sung 
a solemn mass by the Archbishop of Dublin, and 
after the mass the said act proclaimed there in the 
presence of 2000 persons, and Te Deum sung with 
great gladness and joy to all men. And for be- 
cause my riches is small, I have sent your majesty 
a poor pair of gloves of silk, beseeching your majesty 
to accept the same, so simple a present, as of him 
that would as gladly present you with the empire of 
the whole world, if it were in him to give. Beseech- 
ing Almighty God to send your excellent majesty no 
less honours, than the most honourable that ever 

q 2 



228 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

reigned in earth. From your grace's manor of Kil- 
mainham," &c* 

In this parliament it was further enacted, that 
" all religious persons, as well men as women pro- 
fessed of what order, rule, or habit they were/ 1 
might, after the then contemplated suppression of 
the abbeys, &c, to which they belonged, purchase 
lands, &c, as though they had never been professed, 
and sue and be sued as other subjects, and enjoy all 
lawful things in like manner ; provided, however, that 
they should not take or claim lands, &c, as heirs to 
any person, nor marry, unless on proof that their 
vows of profession were taken by compulsion. Pro- 
vision was also made for the erecting of vicarages 
in parish churches, and endowing them with a proper 
proportion of lands and tithes " for the maintenance 
of divine service, and keeping good hospitality with- 
in their said parishes," reserving to the king yearly 
the twentieth part and first fruits on every presenta- 
tion, and the patronage. In the second session of 
the same parliament, the monasteries and other re- 
ligious houses were formally suppressed, and the 
abbots and priors, who had been induced to make 
what were absurdly termed voluntary surrenders of 
their houses and possessions, of whom twenty-four 
were lords of parliament, were pensioned by the 
king. But in the remoter parts of the island, the 
order for their dissolution was disregarded, and in a 
great portion of the country they existed for half a 

* State Papers, temp. Hen. VIII. 



CxEORGE BROWNE. 229 

century longer. Sir John Davis bears testimony to 
the fact, that " the abbeys and religious houses in 
Tyrone, Donegal, and Fermanagh were never sur- 
veyed nor reduced into charge, but were continually 
possessed by the religious persons" until the reign of 
James the First, and even the sees of Ulster were 
wholly rilled by the Pope's provision until 1605. In 
the same year (1541) King Henry the Eighth changed 
the priory of the Holy Trinity, on its suppression 
as a monastic establishment, into a deanery and chap- 
ter, since which it has generally borne the name of 
Christ Church. In this new constitution, as it ap- 
pears upon record, the cathedral was to consist of a 
dean and chapter, a chantor, a treasurer, six vicars 
choral, and two singing boys, allowing to them 
£45 6s. Sd. English, during pleasure, which sum 
Queen Mary established for ever, when she con- 
firmed the deanery with alterations, and so it con- 
tinued until the time of King James the First. It 
is observable, that, on the change above alluded to, 
the last prior became the first dean. 

In 1542 an inquisition was taken of the posses- 
sions of this see in the county and city of Dublin, 
at which time the king wrote to the Privy Council of 
Ireland, u shewing them the necessity of providing 
good and faithful pastors through the diocese of Dub- 
lin, for instructing the people in the duties of re- 
ligion, and no less in obedience to these new laws, 
which every day restored to them more and more of 
their Christian liberty, and promoted trade and in- 



230 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

dustry through the whole kingdom."* In the fol- 
lowing year, a contest, which had depended between 
this prelate and Sir Christopher, Lord of Howth, 
concerning the right, title, and inheritance of Ire- 
land's Eye, was decided by the Lord Chancellor, in 
favour of the archbishop and his successors.*)" In 1544 
this prelate erected three prebends in Christ Church, 
St. Michael's, St. Michan's and St. John's, and as- 
signed to each of the prebendaries a pension and a 
church for the corps of their prebends. He also, 
about the same time, united the chapel of St. Mary 
Les Dames and the church of St. Andrew to St. 
Werburgh's within the walls, " in regard there were 
so few parishioners, and the income so small, that 
there was not sufficient to maintain a clergyman ;" 
and in the following year he obtained a licence to 
unite the church of St. John's of Kilmainham and 
St. James's church without the suburbs of Dublin, to 
that of St. Catherine within the suburbs. By deed 
of the 12th of July, 1545, this prelate, in con- 
sideration of £40, conveyed to trustees the town of 
Rathlande, and sixty acres of arable land in the village 
and fields of Rathlande, being on the southern part of 
Thomas- Court wood, then lately occupied by Thomas 
Bathe ; also, all the lands, &c, in Rathlande afore- 
said, and the rents and reversions of the same, to hold 
for ever, to the use of William Brabazon, ancestor of 
the Earl of Meath, his heirs and assigns, at the 

* Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 149. f Rot. in Cane. Hib. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 231 

yearly rent of 135. 4d.* being the site of that 
wretched district of paupers, now denominated the 
Earl of Meath's Liberties. At the close of the year 
1546, on the dissolution of the cathedral of St. Pa- 
trick's, another partial valuation was made of sundry 
dignities and benefices in this diocese. 

Edward the Sixth, immediately on his accession 
by the advice of his council, " altered the Liturgy 
book from what King Henry had formerly printed 
and established, causing the same to be printed in 
English, commanding it to be read and sung in the 
several cathedrals and parish churches of England for 
the common benefit of the nobility, gentry, and com- 
monalty ; and, that his subjects of Ireland might like- 
wise participate of the same sweetness, he sent over 
orders, (yet, not until the fourth year of his reign), to 
his viceroy, Sir Anthony St. Leger, then being Lord 
Deputy of that nation, that the same be forthwith 
there in Ireland observed within their several bi- 
shoprics, cathedrals, and parish churches, which was 
first observed in Christ Church, at Dublin, on the 
feast of Easter, 1551, before the said Sir Anthony, 
George Browne, and the mayor and bailiffs of Dub- 
lin, John Lockwood being then dean of the said ca- 
thedral. "f The amended Liturgy was thereupon 
partially promulgated in this country, with rules an- 
nexed for ecclesiastical habits and ceremonies. It is 
further worthy of remark, that this was the first book 
printed in Ireland, its printer, Humphrey Powell, 

* Rot. Pat. 12th July, 36 Hen. VIII. f Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 



232 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

having come over from England in the same year in 
which it appeared, with the paramount object of its 
publication. Before, however, any state manifesto 
was sent forth on the subject, an assembly was held in 
Dublin, consisting of the prelates and clergy of Ire- 
land, when Archbishop George Dowdal of Armagh, 
and his suffragans, vehemently opposed the innova- 
tion. " Sir Anthony St. Leger then took up the order, 
and held it forth to Archbishop Browne, who, stand- 
ing up, received it, saying, 6 This order, good bre- 
thren, is from our gracious king, and from the rest of 
our brethren, the fathers and clergy of England, who 
have consulted herein, and compared the Holy Scrip- 
tures with what they have done, unto whom I sub- 
mit, as Jesus did to Cassar, in all things just and law- 
ful, making no questions why or wherefore, as we own 
him our true and lawful king.' After this several of 
the meeker or most moderate of the bishops and 
clergy of Ireland cohered with George Browne ;"* 
who, in furtherance of the royal object, preached upon 
this occasion a sermon against keeping the Scriptures 
in the Latin tongue, and against the worship of 
images. It is printed at the end of his life, and is the 
only part of his writings extant, except the before 
mentioned letters. In this he particularly inveighed 
against the Jesuits. 

Saint Leger was soon afterwards succeeded by 
Sir James Crofts, "who, on his coming over, endea- 
voured much for the persuading of George Dowdal 

* Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 



GEORGE BROWNE. 233 

to adhere to the order aforesaid; but Dowdal being ob- 
durate, his majesty and the learned privy council then of 
England, for his perverseness, upon the 20th of Octo- 
ber following, deprivedhim of the title of Primate of all 
Ireland, and conferred the same on Archbishop 
Browne and his successors, by reason that he was the 
first of the Irish bishops, who embraced the order for 
establishing of the English Liturgy and Reformation 
in Ireland."* Leland and others more fully detail, that 
when the deputy requested Dowdal to appoint a place, 
where "he might conveniently have an opportunity 
of appeasing wrath between the fathers of the church 
and his grace," the primate complied, though he de- 
clined appearing at the palace, and at the same time, 
expressed his apprehensions of the inutility of the 
proposed conference. 6 1 fear,' he said, c that it is 
in vain for me to converse with an obstinate number 
of churchmen, and in vain for your lordship to sup- 
pose the difference between us can be so soon ap- 
peased, as our judgments, opinions, and consciences 
are so different.' But, Sir James, anxious to secure 
the co-operation of one, who held the highest station 
in the Irish Church, appointed the conference to be 
held at the temporary residence of Dowdal, where 
Staples, Bishop of Meath, advocated the principles of 
the Reformation, while the primate maintained those 
of the Roman Catholic faith. Like all similar discus- 
sions, however, the conference terminated without 
effecting any change in the sentiments of either 

* Harleian. Miscellany, vol. v. 



234 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

party ; both, indeed, retired more firmly devoted to 
their previous professions. 

In 1552 inquisitions were taken concerning the 
possessions of this see within the city and county of 
Dublin. In the following year, on the accession of 
Queen Mary, she obliged Browne to surrender his 
patent of the primacy, and to deliver it cancelled into 
the Chancery, where a vacat remains upon it on re- 
cord; and upon the 12th of October, in the same 
year, she passed new letters patent under the great 
seal, whereby she re-established the title and office of 
the primacy of all Ireland in the see of Armagh, for 
ever, according to ancient usage. " We restore," 
says she, " to Dowdal, Archbishop of Armagh, the 
primacy of all Ireland, which your predecessors, be- 
yond the memory of man, have been known to have 
held, and we confirm to you for ever the same, com- 
manding that all other archbishops and bishops shall 
pay obedience to the primates in the exercise of their 
primatial office.''* From which period the pre-emi- 
nence has remained firm and undisputed in Armagh, 
without any revocation either by Queen Elizabeth or 
any of her successors. 

Very soon afterwards, about the close of the year 
1554, Archbishop Browne was, by primate Dowdal 
and other delegates expelled and driven from his see 
as being a married man ; " and it is thought," (adds 
the historian of the transaction with much simplicity,) 
"had he not been married he had been expelled, 

* Ware's Bishops, p. 78. 



HUGH CURWEN. 235 

having appeared so much for the Reformation in both 
these former kings' days. On his expulsion, all the 
temporalities belonging to the archbishopric were 
committed to Thomas Lock wood, then Dean of Christ 
Church. The precise period at which Browne died 
has not been ascertained, but it has been most com- 
monly referred to the year 1556. The see continued 
vacant until, a licence having issued on the 22nd of 
February, 1555, from King Philip and Queen Mary 
to proceed to the election of a successor, Hugh 
Cur wen was advanced to the dignity. 

HUGH CURWEN. 
[Succ. 1555. Resign. 1567.] 

Archbishop Curwen was a native of Westmore- 
land, and of a family who claimed descent from 
Gospatric Earl of Northumberland, but assumed the 
name of Curwen from a locality so denominated in 
the district of Galloway. This original appellation 
was first altered by Sir Christopher de Culwen, who 
was twice sheriff of Cumberland by that title, and 
once by the name of Curwen. His descendant, the 
subject of the present memoir, was doctor of laws, 
Dean of Hereford in 1541, and by some said to have 
been also Archdeacon of Oxford ; but Wood, in the 
" Athenae Oxonienses," denies the latter of these 
promotions, and says it was a Richard Curwen who 
was Archdeacon of Oxford, and not this Hugh. 
Queen Mary's letter, under her privy signet to the 
dean and chapter of Christ Church for his election, 



236 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

dated the 18th of February, in the first and second 
year of her reign, is preserved in the chapter house 
of that cathedral, and appears signed on the top in 
her own handwriting " Marye the Queene ;" yet was 
it not until the 8th of September following that he 
was consecrated according to the Roman pontifical in 
St. Paul's Church, London, together with James 
Turberville, Bishop of Exeter, and William Glynn, 
bishop of Bangor, and four days after was at Green- 
wich appointed by Queen Mary (whose chaplain he 
was) chancellor of Ireland. On the 25th of the 
same month she wrote to the dean and chapter of 
Christ Church to receive him honourably and with 
due respect, announcing that he was repairing " to 
reside upon the cure of his bishopric, which now of 
long time hath been destitute of a Catholic bishop, 
as also to occupy the office of our high chancellor of 
that our realm/'* Accordingly, on the 20th of Oc- 
tober following he took possession of his see, on the 
next day was restored to its temporalities, and on the 
third took the oath of office before the lord deputy 
and council. Immediately after his elevation he 
resigned his deanery of Hereford, but in a month 
resumed and retained it until the year 1558. A 
letter yet extant thus alludes to his first sermon. 
" The Archbishop of Dublin did preach his first 
sermon that he made in this land in Christ Church, 
and did set forth the word of God sincerely in his 
sermon and after such a sort, that those men, who be 

* Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 



HUGH CURWEN. 237 

learned and unlearned, both do give him as high 
praise as I have heard given to any one man, so that 
those men who favour the word of God are very glad 
of him and prayeth for him so to continue." At the 
close of this the first year of his advancement he held 
a provincial synod, in which many constitutions were 
made respecting the ceremonies of divine worship. 

In 1556 the Earl of Sussex, on the occasion of 
his being appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, pro- 
ceeded to St. Patrick's cathedral, " nobly accom- 
panied, and was received at the church door by 
Archbishop Curwen under a canopy of state, that 
prelate being arrayed in his pontificals, and the clergy 
in rich copes ; there kneeling he was censed, and, 
having kissed the cross, received the blessing of the 
archbishop, after which he proceeded towards the high 
altar, where he continued kneeling, while the hymn 
' Te Deum' was singing. He was there censed a 
second time and blessed, and service was performed 
by the archbishop, after which the deputy arose from 
his place, proceeded to the altar, and, having kneeled 
there for a certain space of time, offered a piece of 
gold, after which ceremony he dined with the arch- 
bishop."* In the same year, commissioners were ap- 
pointed to take account of all lands or tenements, all 
plate, bells, and other utensils, or sums of money, 
which lately had belonged to the churches or chapels 
of this diocese ; and to inquire into the state of 
such churches and chapels as were ruinous, and to 

* Mason's St. Patrick's, p. 163. 



238 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

report by whose fault they became so. Similar com- 
missions were issued for the other dioceses of Ire- 
land.* At this time likewise, the act was passed 
(3 & 4 Phill. & Mary, c. 8), repealing all statutes and 
provisions made against the See Apostolic of Rome, 
from the time of the twentieth year of Henry VIII., 
so far as the acts of such see should not be prejudicial 
to authority royal, or the laws in force. Other statutes 
of the same session revived all former acts passed 
for the punishment of heresies, renounced the enjoy- 
ment by the crown of first fruits, rectories, glebes, &c, 
and assigned such, as had come to the queen, for the 
augmentation of poor benefices. 

On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, Curwen 
accommodated his conduct and conscience to the po- 
licy of his new sovereign, and her liberal favour was 
his recompence. In November, 1557 3 he was con- 
stituted one of the Lords Justices of Ireland in con- 
junction with Sir Henry Sydney, and, in the follow- 
ing year, as Chancellor, received from the hands of 
that nobleman a new great seal of Ireland, while si- 
milar new seals were on the same occasion given to 
the principal judges of the other courts.f In June, 
1559 5 he was appointed Keeper of the Great Seal of 
Ireland, took the oath of office on the 8th of August 
following, and, in the same year, was joined in a com- 
mission for mustering the inhabitants of the county of 
Dublin. He was one ofthe spiritual lords, who sat in the 
parliament of 1560, at which the Act of Uniformity 
was passed, as particularly mentioned in "The History 

* Rolls in Chancery. f Borlase's Reduction of Ireland, p. 121. 



HUGH CURWEN. 239 

of the County of Dublin," at the locality of Corduff. In 
that parliament were also passed the act restoring to the 
crown the " ancient jurisdiction" over the state ecclesias- 
tical and spiritual, and abolishing all foreign power 
repugnant to the same ; the " act for the conferring 
and consecrating of archbishops and bishops within this 
realm," whereby, forasmuch as their election by deans 
and chapters was declared to cause long delay and 
great charges to such prelates, and to be derogatory 
to the queen's prerogative, it was enacted, that 
thenceforth the queen, her heirs and successors, or 
the Lord Deputy, might by letters patent collate fit 
persons to the same, whereupon the said persons 
might be consecrated, as if all former ceremonies and 
elections had been done ; and have, thereupon, all 
possessions, profits, jurisdictions, dignities, &c, as 
former bishops. 

In 1562 the Queen sent an order requiring all 
persons to assist the proctors of St. Patrick's cathe- 
dral in collecting honey, fruit, and other things, 
which had been paid from the earliest period of time 
from all parts of the province to the dean and chapter 
of that church ; these, being either duties reserved 
in their leases, or benefactions of the pious in ancient 
times, were to be applied to the repair of the church, 
which during the suppression had fallen much into 
decay. The proctors were, however, strictly prohi- 
bited from carrying about with them any pastoral 
staff, crucifix, mass-book,* &c. In 1563 Archbishop 

— _ *_ . , — ... ,.- - — ... ■ i ■ - — 

* Rot. in Cane. Hib. 



240 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Cur wen was again constituted Lord Chancellor, and 
an original letter of his, bearing date in June of the 
following year, to the Earl of Sussex, deprecating the 
erection of St. Patrick's, Dublin, into a university, 
is extant amongst the Cottonian manuscripts. In 
1567 5 beginning to sink under the infirmities of old 
age, he procured his translation to Oxford, and hav- 
ing spent one year in that see, died at Swinbroch, 
near Burford, in the parish church of which he w r as 
buried on the first of November, 1568. Yet it is 
observable that, neither in the grant of the royal 
assent for this prelate's removal to Oxford, nor of his 
restitution to its temporalities, is any notice taken of 
his having previously been Archbishop of Dublin. 

ADAM LOFTUS. 
[Succ. 1567. Ob. 1605.] 

Adam Loftns was born at Swinshead, in York- 
shire, the youngest son of an ancient and wealthy 
family, who contributed a more than ordinary allow- 
ance for his support and education at the university 
of Cambridge. During his course there, he, on the 
occasion of a public exhibition, so well performed his 
part as a florid orator and subtle disputant, and withal 
presented such a comely person and courtly address, 
as to attract the notice of Queen Elizabeth, who en- 
couraged him to proceed in his studies, with a gra- 
cious promise of early promotion, which she soon 
afterwards verified by sending him into Ireland as 
chaplain to the Earl of Sussex, on his appointment to 



ADAM LOFTUS. 241 

the government of that country. So early and effec- 
tively was the royal eye attracted by the courtier 
clerk, that on the 8th of October, 1561, he obtained 
letters patent for the rectory of Painstown, in the 
diocese of Meath; and having been, in 1562, at the 
very early age of 28, appointed to succeed Arch- 
bishop Dovvdal in the see of Armagh, he was conse- 
crated by Hugh Archbishop of Dublin about the 
close of that year. In consequence of which, as 
Harris remarks, " the Irish Protestant bishops derive 
their succession through him, without any pretence of 
blemish or open for cavil, for he was consecrated by 
Curwen, who had been consecrated in England ac- 
cording to the forms of the Roman pontifical, in the 
third year of Queen Mary."* 

In 1564 he was elected Dean of St. Patrick's, 
the Queen giving her licence for his holding that 
dignity with the primacy, " his archbishopric being 
a place of great charge, in name and title only to be 
esteemed, without any worldly endowment resulting 
from it."f In 1566, when O'Neill destroyed the 
city and cathedral of Armagh by force, Primate 
Loftus directed against him " the spiritual weapon 
of excommunication, pronounced not only by himself, 
but by all the clergy of his diocese," the Irish chief- 
tain, however, utterly disregarded his ecclesiastical 
denunciations. J At the close of that year Loftus took 
his degree of doctor of divinity at Cambridge, and 



* Ware's Bishops, p. 94. t Rot. in Cane. Hib. 

X Ware's Annals of Elizabeth, c. 9. 

R 



242 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

on the 8th of August, 1567? was appointed to this 
see, which being then deemed more valuable he ac- 
cepted, and also, in obedience to the queen's letter 
of the 10th of June preceding, resigned the deanery 
of St. Patrick's, to the end that Doctor Weston, the 
newly appointed Chancellor of the realm, might be 
endowed with that dignity. 

In 1568 this prelate, supported by the Bishops of 
Meath and Kildare, consecrated Doctor Lancaster (who 
had been treasurer of Salisbury and chaplain to the 
queen) as his own successor in Armagh ; the ceremony 
was performed in Christ Church cathedral. In 1570 
was passed the act directing that a free school should 
be kept in every diocese, in the principal shire town 
of the see, at the cost of the whole diocese ; the ordi- 
nary of each to pay one third of the master's salary, 
and the parsons, vicars, prebendaries, and other 
ecclesiastical persons of the see the other two parts, 
by contributions to be settled by the ordinary ; nor 
were church livings in the possession of the crown 
exempted from this assessment, but on the contrary, 
lest any construction of the royal prerogative should 
lessen the fund for this national object, such livings 
were expressly charged thereto in the hands of the 
queen or her patentees. In May, 1572, her majesty, 
on a representation of the poverty of the see of Dub- 
lin, was induced to grant to Doctor Loftus a dispen- 
sation to hold with his archbishopric any comfortable 
sinecures not exceeding £100 per annum in value, 
a licence of which this prelate very fully availed him- 
self. In the following year he also obtained the 
chancellorship, with all its patronage and emolu- 



ADAM LOFTUS. 243 

ments, which office he enjoyed (with the intermis- 
sion of a few months) to the time of his decease. 
Harris indeed, in his notice of this prelate, affords at 
the following year of his life the most striking note 
of " the excessive ambition and avarice" by which, as 
he admits, his better qualities were tarnished. " For 
besides his promotions in the Church and his public 
employments in the State, he grasped at every thing 
that became void, either for himself or family, inso- 
much that the dean and chapter of Christ Church 
were so wearied with his importunities, that on the 
28th of August, 1578, upon granting him some re- 
quest, they obliged him to promise not to petition or 
become suitor to them for any advowson of any pre- 
bend or living, nor for any lease of any benefice, nor 
for any fee farm. But, when an entry of this promise 
came to be made in the chapter books in his pre- 
sence, he would have thrust in an exception of one 
petition more and no more, which the dean and 
chapter would not consent to, being, as they alleged 
in that entry, contrary to his lordship's promise made 
in the chapter house. However this disposition of his 
was afterwards of service, in preserving the ancient 
cathedral of St. Patrick's from being dissolved and 
converted into a university. For being greatly in- 
terested in the livings of that church, by long leases 
and other estates thereof granted either to himself, 
his children or kinsmen, he opposed Sir John Perrot, 
Lord Deputy, in his attempt of converting the reve- 
nues thereof to the uses aforesaid," a circumstance 
which ultimately led to Perrot's unhappy fate. 

r 2 



244 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUELIST. 

In 1582 Loftus was one of the Lords Justices of 
Ireland, and again in 1585. In 1583 he was the 
unjust judge that illegally sentenced the Roman Ca- 
tholic Archbishop of Cashel, Derrnot Hurley, to the 
cruelties of death on Osmantown-green. See fully on 
this event, " The History of the County of Dublin,' r 
p. 518. "In 1585 Sir John Perrot made a journey 
to the north, and left Archbishop Loftus and Sir 
Henry Wallop Lords Justices during his absence. 
His back was no sooner turned, but they wrote let- 
ters of complaint against him to Sir Francis Wal- 
singham, Secretary of State, which, with the insinu- 
ations of Sir Jeffrey Fenton, then in England, to the 
queen, proved the first dawnings of Perrot's troubles. 
The same year great unkindnesses burst out between 
the Lord Deputy Perrot and Archbishop Loftus, 
partly upon public accounts, and chiefly concerning 
St. Patrick's Church, which the lord deputy had in 
his instructions to convert to a college, and had a great 
desire to set it forward, but Archbishop Loftus op- 
posed him, being interested in the livings of St. 
Patrick's by long leases, and other estates thereof, 
granted either to himself, his children or kinsmen, 
and, therefore, did by all means withstand the aliena- 
tion of these revenues, and, being a man of a high 
spirit and used to bear sway in the government, he 
grew into contradiction, and from contradiction to 
contention with the deputy, who, on the other side 
brooking no opposition, it grew to some heat between 
them ; whereof the queen taking notice wrote to 
them both to reconcile themselves together. But the 



ADAM LOFTUS. 245 

archbishop stuck to him to the last, and was a main 
instrument in bringing him to his condemnation ; 
and Perrot in his last will solemnly testified that the 
archbishop falsely belied him in his declaration against 
him."* The ill-fated ex-deputy was found guilty of 
the charges urged against him, and only escaped from 
public execution by a more sudden visitation of deatli 
in his prison at the tower. In 1589 Doctor Loftus 
drew still more upon the munificence of his sovereign, 
and acquired a grant of " the office of the preroga- 
tive" to him, and Doctor Ambrose Forth, and the 
survivor of them. f 

Although he, as before mentioned, successfully re- 
sisted the conversion of his church into a university, 
yet was he a zealous promoter of that which now 
exists in the city of Dublin, by employing his interest 
and good offices in its behalf with Queen Elizabeth, 
and with many men of power in England ; he also, by 
two elaborate speeches, delivered in the hearing of the 
mayor, aldermen, and commons of Dublin, prevailed 
upon that body to endow the infant establishment. 
"An act," said the prelate, " of good acceptance with 
God, of great reward hereafter, and of honour 
and advantage to yourselves, and more to your 
learned offspring in the future ; where by the help 
of learning they may build your families some 
stories higher than they are, by their advancement 
either in the Church or the commonwealth." His 
persuasions were effective, the proposal was embraced, 
and the monastery of All Hallows, in the immediate 



* Perrot's Life. f Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. 



246 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

vicinity of the city, was, with all its precincts, granted 
for the foundation. Doctor Loftus thereupon em- 
ployed Henry Ussher, afterwards Archbishop of Ar- 
magh, to solicit the queen for her royal charter, and 
a mortmain licence for the land so granted ; the emis- 
sary was successful, and soon returned with a warrant, 
dated the 29th day of December, 1591? authorizing 
the incorporation of a university, with the power of 
holding the granted lands, and any others that might 
be obtained, to the amount of £400 yearly value, which 
concession was followed by a regular charter, whereby 
the college was erected as mother of a university, by 
the style of " The College of the Holy and Undivided 
Trinity of Queen Elizabeth, near Dublin ;" to consist 
of a provost, three fellows, and three scholars : Lord 
Burleigh was named first chancellor, and this prelate, 
then also Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was nominated 
the firstprovost, which office he continued to enjoy until 
1594, when he resigned it, the queen having first 
given a licence for his so doing, and in which she ex- 
pressed her great satisfaction in his administration. 

The object of this foundation, as expressed in the 
Queen's letter to the lord deputy, was, that thereby 
"knowledge, learning and civility may be increased 
amongst the Irish, and their children's children, espe- 
cially those that be poor, may have their learning and 
education given them with much more ease and lesser 
charge than in other universities they can obtain it." 
The foundation has been since enriched by royal 
grants of confiscated estates, parliamentary votes, and 
private donations, to an amount well adequate to the 



ADAM LOFTUS. 247 

promotion of its legitimate objects. The annual ren- 
tal of its extensive estates in the counties of Cork, 
Kerry, Limerick, and Meath, exclusive of renewal 
fines, amounts to £13,816; it has also extensive pa- 
tronage in Church livings, and sundry allowances in 
the nature of exhibitions from charitable foundations. 
Its magnificent library has been acquired at little 
expense, by private gifts, the statutable extension 
of copyright since 1816, and, in the instance of the 
Fagel library, the entire donation of the trustees of 
Erasmus Smith's charities. Its manuscript room is so 
richly supplied, but at the same time so sealed from 
ordinary access, that it may well be termed " the ceme- 
tery of Irish history ;" a character, perhaps, too much 
in accordance with the constitution of the college it- 
self, for, although it has sundry professors of its own 
endowment, and others, as those of divinity, mathe- 
matics, astronomy, and political economy, principally 
of private foundation, it yet has no professor of the 
history, antiquities, or statistics, moral or physical 
resources of the country with which its "alumni" 
should, in their future lives, be conversant, James 
the First urged the propriety of such an appointment; 
Charles the First warmly approved of it ; Bishop Be- 
dell, while provost, endeavoured to effectuate it; James 
the Second actually appointed one ; and a very large 
bequest was, in more recent years, designed by Doctor 
Flood for the endowment of such, but his will was 
overruled at law. The reproach, however, of such a 
deficiency in our Irish university will, it is hoped, be 
speedily removed under the liberal administration of 
the present provost, Dr. Sadleir. 



248 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

In the chronological arrangement of these me- 
moirs, it is painful to find Edmund Spencer, in his 
"View of the State of Ireland" in 1596, thus cha- 
racterizing the clergy of the Established Church in 
Ireland. " Whatever disorders you see in the Church 
of England, you may find there, and many more, 
namely, gross simony, greedy covetousness, fleshly 
incontinency, careless sloth, and generally all dis- 
ordered life in the common clergyman ; and besides 
all these, they have their particular enormities, for 
all Irish priests, which now enjoy Church livings, 
they are in a manner mere laymen, saving that they 
have taken holy orders, but otherwise they do go and 
live like laymen, follow all kind of husbandry and 
other worldly affairs as other Irishmen do ; they 
neither read Scriptures, nor preach to the people, 
nor administer the communion, but baptism they do, 
for they christen, yet after the Popish fashion ; only 
they take the tithes and offerings, and gather what 
fruit else they may of their livings, the which they 
convert as badly, and some of them (they say) pay 
as due tributes and shares of their livings to their 
bishops, for the Irish bishops have their clergy in 
such awe and subjection under them, that they dare 
not complain of them, so as they may do to them 
what they please ; for they, knowing their own un- 
worthiness and incapacity, and that they are there- 
fore still removable at their bishops' will, yield what 
pleaseth him, and he taketh what he listeth ; yea, and 
some of them, whose dioceses are in remote parts, 
somewhat out of the world's eye, do not at all bestow 



ADAM LOFTUS. 249 

the benefices which are in their own donation upon 
any, but keep them in their own hands, and set their 
own servants and horse-boys to take up the tithes and 
fruits of them, with the which some of them purchase 
great lands, and build fair castles upon the same, of 
which abuse, if any question be moved, they have a 
very seemly colour and excuse, that they have no 
worthy ministers to bestow them upon, but keep 
them so bestowed for any such sufficient person as 
any shall bring unto them."* 

In 1597 Archbishop Loftus was again one of the 
Lords Justices, and once more in 1599> on the remark- 
able occasion, when the Earl of Essex, the Viceroy, 
departed from Ireland, and suddenly appeared before 
the queen in her dressing chamber. At the close cf 
the latter year he was named one of the assistant 
councillors to the Lord President of Munster, and 
in 1603 had pardon of intrusion and alienation, in 
reference to the manors, &c, of Rathfarnham, Ballin- 
tiyer, Newtown, Stagonil, Timothan, Old Court, 
Kilclogan, Wexford, Hooke, Painstown, le Naas, 
&c.f In two years afterwards, on the 5th of April, 
1605, about forty-two years after his consecration, 
of which nearly thirty-eight were spent in this see, 
he died at an advanced age in his palace of St. 
Sepulchre's, and was buried in St. Patrick's Church, 
at the right hand of the Earl of Cork's monument. 
It may be remarked, that Anne, the second daughter 
of this prelate, was married to Sir Henry Colley of 



* Spencer's View of the State of Ireland, Dub. Ed. p. 139, &c. 
t Rot. in Cane. Hib. 



250 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Castle Carberrv, and from that union have de- 
scended the present Marquis Wellesley, and the 
Duke of Wellington. 



THOMAS JONES. 
[Succ. 1605. Ob. 1619.] 

Thomas Jones, the son of Sir Roger Jones, Knight, 
Alderman of London, succeeded on the death of 
Loftus ; he was born in Lancashire, and educated in 
Christ Church College, Cambridge, where he be- 
came a master of arts, but took his degree of doctor 
of divinity, in that of Dublin, by special grace, 
in 1614. When he had taken orders he came 
over to Ireland, and married Margaret, the daughter 
of Adam Purdon, Esq., of Lurgan Race in the 
county of Louth, relict of John Douglas, and sister 
to the wife of Archbishop Loftus, to which alliance 
he was probably indebted for his subsequent promo- 
tions; indeed, there was, (as Mr. Mason has remarked 
in his History of St. Patrick's Cathedral,) a singular 
congruity in the events which befel each of these 
persons. They were educated at the same university, 
and ran the race of ambition together, both were deans 
of St. Patrick's, archbishops of Dublin, chancellors 
and lords justices of Ireland ; they married two sisters, 
and each left a numerous progeny, while the elder 
branch of both families was ennobled in the persons 
of their immediate heirs. Jones's first promotion was 
to the chancellorship of St. Patrick's cathedral ; in 
1581 he was elected its dean, and, while in that office* 
combined with his chapter to make some of those 



THOMAS JONES. 251 

disgraceful demises of the property of the church (as 
of the manor of Coolmine for 81 years to Mr. Allen 
of Allenscourt), which Dean Swift has so severely 
censured. 

On the 10th of May, 1584, Dean Jones was pro- 
moted by letters patent to the see of Meath ; he had 
been recommended from Ireland, as " a person for his 
learning and wisdom, and other virtuous qualities, fit to 
be advanced to a bishopric ;" and the queen, accord- 
ingly, wrote from Westminster to the lords justices to 
make out such writings for his election and consecra- 
tion, and the restitution of the temporalities of the 
see, of Meath. On the 12th of the above month 
he was consecrated in St. Patrick's Church, and in 
the month following was called into the privy coun- 
cil by her majesty's special direction, communicated 
to Sir John Perrot. Having presided over that see 
during twenty-one years, he was, in six months after 
the death of Loftus, promoted to this, King James 
having in October, 1605, thus emphatically recom- 
mended his translation thereto : " Whereas since the 
death of the late archbishop, we have given no order 
for supply of that see, because of same being a place 
so eminent within that kingdom, we took time to ad- 
vise of a meet person for it, we have since, upon con- 
ference with divers of our council, found none more 
fit for the present time than the Bishop of Meath, in 
regard of his long experience in that kingdom, both 
in the ecclesiastical state as a bishop, and in the civil 
affairs as a chancellor, wherefore we have made 
choice of him, and we are further pleased, that he 



252 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

shall hold in com men dam a prebend which now he 
hath in possession, which he will nominate unto 
you." He, accordingly, retained with this dignity 
the prebend of Castleknock, and the rectory of 
Trim ; and, in a few days after, was for the same 
causes made chancellor by privy seal, which high 
office he held until his death. On the 9th of Novem- 
ber he was consecrated, and on the 11th had resti- 
tution of the temporalities. 

In 1608 this archbishop had the king's letter for 
a grant of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin of 
Tristernagh, with all lands thereunto belonging* as 
theretofore demised by Queen Elizabeth to Captain 
William Piers for a certain term then outstanding,* 
and in 1610 obtained a further grant to himself and his 
son Sir Roger Jones, of two watermills on the Boyne, 
near Trim, with the courses and weirs thereunto be- 
longing, parcel of the estate of the late monastery of the 
Blessed Virgin of Trim; also, a grant of the monastery 
of the friars minors observants of Trim, with the site, 
church, cemetery, water-mill and course, garden, or- 
chard, and other appurtenances, an eel weir on the 
Boyne, the king's park otherwise the park of Trim, 
containing eighty acres, and other parks, parcel of 
the estate of said monastery ; also, that religious house 
and its site, the church and burial-ground, and the 
hereditaments within the same, and eighty acres ad- 
joining the town and lands of Galroestown, parcel of 
the same estate ; one hundred acres in Ballynascallan, 



* Rot in Cane. Hib. 



THOMAS JONES. 253 

parcel of the estate of Walter de la Hoyde, attainted, 
a castle, and 200a. at Derranstown, &c. 

In 1611 he and the other archbishops of the 
Established Church held a council in Dublin, wherein 
it was decreed, that the suffragans should reside in 
their respective dioceses, visit all the churches under 
their charge, and institute such regulations as would 
be best calculated " to prevent sectarianism, and ex- 
tirpate Popery." It was then also ordained, that 
none should be appointed a minister, without the 
approbation of the Lord Lieutenant under the royal 
seal, that all ecclesiastics should take the oath of su- 
premacy, and that quarterly lists of recusants should 
be transmitted to the viceroy, as also of all who pro- 
tected priests, or attended their service or ceremonies, 
that in every diocese there should be a school of the 
higher order of learning, and in every town one of 
rudiments, all under Protestant tutors, and lastly, 
that the churches should be repaired at the expense 
of the recusants, but for the exclusive service of the 
established religion.* 

In the following year this prelate was one of the 
spiritual lords who sat in the parliament, the opening 
of which is thus strikingly detailed. " On the 18th 
of May being Tuesday, the Lord Deputy, with all 
the peers of the realm and the noblemen, the clergy, 
both bishops and archbishops, attired in scarlet robes 
very sumptuously, with sound of trumpets, the Lord 
David Barry, Viscount Buttevant, bearing the sword 

* Porter's Compend. Annal. Eccles., p. 249, &c. 



254 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

of estate, the Earl of Thomond bearing the cap of 
maintenance, and after all these the Lord Deputy 
followed, riding upon a most stately horse, richly 
trapped, himself attired in a very rich and stately 
robe of purple velvet, which the king's majesty had 
sent him, having his train borne up by eight gentle- 
men of worth, and thus 3 in most stately and sumptuous 
manner, they rode from the Castle of Dublin to the 
Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, to hear service and 
a sermon preached by the Reverend father in God, 
Christopher Hampton, D. D., Archbishop of Ar- 
magh, and Primate of all Ireland. But as many of the 
nobility as were of the recusant faction went not into 
the church, neither heard divine service or sermon, 
notwithstanding that they were lords of the parlia- 
ment house, and rode towards the church with other 
lords of estate, yet they staid without during the time 
of service and sermon. Now, when service was done, 
the Lord Deputy returned back into the Castle, those 
recusant lords joined themselves again with the rest 
of the estate, and rode to the Castle in manner as 
before they came from thence. Now, the Lord 
Deputy, with all this honourable assembly, being en- 
tered into the Castle ascended up into the high house 
of parliament, where he sat down in his chair of 
state ; likewise, the Lord Chancellor sat down ac- 
cording to his estate, also the nobility of the king- 
dom, the lords spiritual and temporal, every one sat 
down accordingly. And, when the whole high court 
of parliament was set, the Lord Chancellor made a 
grave and worthy speech, concerning many great 



THOMAS JONES. 255 

and worthy causes of estate, there to be debated upon 
for the good of the kingdom and for the common- 
wealth thereof."* 

In 1613 Archbishop Jones was one of the justices 
in commission with Sir Richard Wingfield, Marshal 
of Ireland; in 1614 he had a grant of the temporali- 
ties of the bishoprics of Kilmore and Ardagh during 
vacancy. In that year also occurred a new taxation of 
this diocese, in which three of the dignities were re- 
valued and reduced in that estimate ; and three pre- 
bendal dignities valued for the first time. Doctor 
Jones was again in commission as lord justice in 1615, 
jointly with Sir John Denham, Chief Justice of the 
King's Bench ; and, in the parliament of the latter 
year, was appointed to act as proxy for the Archbishop 
of Tuam. The regal visitation of that year reported 
this diocese as of the annual value of £450, while it 
contains the following remarks by the archbishop on 
the state of the deaneries of Omurrough and Wicklow, 
and the diocese generally. " I confess there is but a 
slender account yielded of these two last deaneries, 
which lie in places remote. I humbly pray my true 
excuse may be considered, which is, that I cannot pos- 
sibly get curates to supply the service of these 
churches ; the rectories are impropriate, and the far- 
mers cannot be drawn to yield any competent means to 
a minister for serving the cure ; besides, if we could 
get means, we cannot possibly get ministers, for the 
natives of this kingdom, being generally addicted to 



* Desid. Curios. Hib, vol. i. p. 166. 



256 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Popery, do train up their children in superstition and 
idolatry ; so soon as they come to age they send them 
beyond the seas, from whence they return either 
priests, Jesuits, or seminaries, enemies to the religion 
established, and pernicious members to the state. Such 
English ministers and preachers, as come hither out of 
England, we do but take them upon credit, and many 
times they prove of a dissolute life, which doth much 
hurt. I do humbly desire a small supply of ministers, 
and I will have an especial care of their placing in 
the best manner I can. Some livings are fallen 
void since the beginning of this visitation, for which I 
know not how to provide incumbents for the present. 
This is our case; I might add hereunto, that my archi- 
episcopal jurisdiction was granted away by my prede- 
cessor to a civilian ; and the grant was confirmed by 
both the deans and chapters. My jurisdiction hath 
not yielded me any means or profit (save only my 
proxies since my preferment to this see,) in which time 
I have furnished all the churches of Dublin with suf- 
ficient preachers which before they did want ; I 
have preferred none but good preachers in my cathe- 
dral church or other part. I take God to witness I 
have used my best endeavours to plant a good minis- 
try, and my care and travel shall be still employed to 
perform his majesty's religious directions, and to dis- 
charge a good conscience before God. So in this dio- 
cese there are preachers in number thirty-eight or 
thirty-nine, of which thirty-two are resident; reading 
ministers about forty. I have placed three preachers 
in void livings since my return; besides there are 



THOMAS JONES. 257 

two public schoolmasters in this diocese, one in the 
city of Dublin, and the other in St. Patrick's, which 
teach free schools, and their scholars do prosper well, 
thanks be to God. It is worthy of remark, that the 
above record enumerates, amongst the then wholly 
unprofitable benefices, those of Athy, Grangerosnol- 
van, Belan, Castledermot, Glendalough, Grany, 
Moone, Timolin, Narraghmore, Kilcullen, Wicklow, 
Arklow, Templemichael, &c. In the same year, as 
stated in the notes to Curry's Historical Review, 
(Dublin edition, p. 86,) eight Roman Catholics, who 
had been excommunicated by this prelate for recu- 
sancy, and imprisoned, were released by the indul- 
gence of parliament ; but, on being again excommu- 
nicated by Doctor Jones, they were sent back to their 
former place of confinement. 

In the November of 1617? the mayor and com- 
mons of Dublin procured an act of state against cer- 
tain inhabitants of St. Patrick's liberties, who sold 
goods without licence from the city of Dublin ; but 
this order, which had been obtained when the arch- 
bishop was absent from the council, was, on his repre- 
sentation, suspended, it being proved to be a direct 
infringement of the dean and chapter's privileges, 
whose rights the mayor and commons had upon this 
occasion concealed. In the same year, this prelate 
had a grant from the crown of the wardship of 
Patrick, son and heir of William Bermingham, then 
late of Corballis, at a certain annual rent, " retain- 
ing thereout £7 9s. 6d., for his maintenance and 
education in religion and habits, and in Trinity 



258 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUB LINT. 

College, Dublin, from the twelfth to the eighteenth 
year of his age." 

Archbishop Jones, during his episcopacy, repaired 
a great part of Christ Church which had fallen down 
in his time ; he also restored the steeple, then greatly 
decayed, and placed upon it three weather-cocks, the 
memory of which benefactions was preserved by an 
inscription on the walls of that cathedral long since 
defaced. He died at his palace of St. Sepulchre's, 
in April, 1619 3 having governed this see upwards of 
thirteen years, and was buried beside his wife in St. 
Patrick's Church near the communion table, where a 
beautiful monument was erected to his memory by his 
heir, and which was subsequently repaired at the 
instance of Dean Swift, whose laudable exertions in 
renovating the edifice over whose economy he pre- 
sided, have only been paralleled by the judicious and 
liberal expenditure of the present dignitary, Dean 
Dawson. Archbishop Jones, during the period of 
his several promotions, not only laid the foundation 
of a large estate, but likewise so recommended his son 
to royal favour, that he was, in a few years after his 
father's demise, created Viscount Ranelagh, and Baron 
Jones of Navan ; the first of which titles has been since 
enlarged into an earldom. 

LANCELOT BULKELEY. 
[Succ. 1619. Ob. 1650.] 

Lancelot Bulkeley, Doctor of Divinity, of the 
University of Dublin, was the eleventh and youngest 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 259 

son of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris, by his 
second wife Agnes, daughter of Thomas Needham, 
and acquired his education at Brazen-nose College, 
Oxford; into which he was admitted a commoner in 
1587, in the eighteenth year of his age. He after- 
wards removed to St. Edmund's Hall, where he took 
the successive degrees of bachelor and master of arts, 
and was in November, 1593, ordained deacon by 
Hugh Bellot, bishop of Bangor, in a private ora- 
tory in that prelate's palace, being then also licensed 
to preach ; he was on the same day instituted to the 
rectory of Llandyfnan, in the March following to that 
of Beaumaris, and immediately afterwards ordained 
priest in the cathedral of Bangor, by the same bishop. 
Having for a short time filled the archdeaconry of 
Dublin, he was promoted to its see in 1619* with 
the usual mandates for investiture, consecration, and 
restitution. He was accordingly consecrated at 
Drogheda in St. Peter's Church, on the 3rd of 
October in that year, by Christopher, Archbishop of 
Armagh, assisted by the Bishops of Kilmore andDro- 
more, and was soon afterwards called into the privy 
council by King James, who early in the following 
year granted him a licence to hold in commendam 
one or more ecclesiastical benefices, not exceeding the 
annual value of £100 sterling in the king's books. 
In 1621 this prelate granted to Christopher and 
Richard Fagan the office of constable of the castle of 
Swords, with certain lands annexed.* In 1623 he 



Rot in Cane. Hib. 

s2 



260 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIX. 

revived the controversy concerning the primacy with 
Doctor Hampton, " on the ground, that a Protestant 
king and council would confirm the patent granted 
by a Protestant king to his predecessor Browne, and 
abolish that of a Popish queen to Primate Dowdal : 
the death of Hampton, however, which occurred 
soon after, silenced the dispute for that time."* In 
1626 Bulkeley petitioned King Charles, setting forth, 
that whereas before the dissolution of abbeys the 
Archbishops of Dublin, from time to time at their 
ordinary visitations, received the yearly sum of £13 
Irish, for proxies issuing out of, or payable for 
churches belonging to the abbey of St. Thomas the 
Martyr beside Dublin ; £6 8s. for proxies chargeable 
upon the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, and 
£5 6s. &d. Irish, out of the monastery of St. Mary 
the Virgin beside Dublin ; which several proxies, 
upon the dissolution, were reserved by an act of 
parliament to the then archbishop and his successors, 
by virtue whereof he and his predecessors had ever 
since received the said proxies at the hands of the 
vice-treasurer, until the last establishment made by 
the advice of the late commissioners in Ireland, who, 
supposing the same to be a pension granted to him, 
left the same out of the establishment; and, there- 
fore, prayed his majesty's letters, directing the vice- 
treasurer and receiver-general to pay the said proxies, 
together with the arrears thereof, which was accord- 
ingly done under the authority of letters from the 



Ware's Bishops, p. 79. 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 261 

privy council of England, dated at Whitehall, 21st of 
June, 1626. In the same year he renewed the dis- 
pute about the primacy with Archbishop Ussher, 
upon which occasion King Charles directed letters to 
the Lord Deputy Falkland and the privy council, to 
examine into and finally determine the difference, 
that the scandal arising from such an unseemly 
contention between prelates might be avoided; but 
nothing was done in pursuance of this command, until 
1634, a little before the meeting of parliament, when 
the Lord Deputy Strafford summoned the two arch- 
bishops before the council board, and, for two seve- 
ral days, examined narrowly, viewed the records, and 
heard all that could be alleged on either side, and 
then declared, " that it appeared as well by the testi- 
mony of Bernard in the life of Malachy, as by the 
old Roman provincials, and divers other evidences, 
that the see of Armagh had from all antiquity been 
acknowledged the prime see of the whole kingdom, and 
the archbishop thereof reputed not a provincial pri- 
mate, (like the other three metropolitans*) but anational, 
i. e., the sole primate of Ireland properly so called ; 
that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Archbishop 
of Dublin, (not being chancellor,) both at the council 
board and in the execution of the high commission, 
even for such things as properly concerned the 
diocese of Dublin itself, did constantly subscribe after 
the Archbishop of Armagh ; that in the statute made 
for the erection of free schools in the 1 2th of Eliza- 
beth, the Archbishop of Armagh is nominated before 
the Archbishop of Dublin, as he is in that of the 



262 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

27th of Elizabeth, where all the archbishops and bi- 
shops were ranked in their order, as appeared by the 
parliament rolls; for which reason he decreed that 
the Archbishop of Armagh and his successors for 
ever should have precedency, and be ranked before 
the Archbishp of Dublin and his successors, as well in 
parliament and convocation house, as in all other meet- 
ings, and in all commissions where they should be men- 
tioned, aud in all places, as well within the diocese or 
province of Dublin as elsewhere, until upon better 
proof on the part of the Archbishop of Dublin it 
should be adjudged otherwise." And thus was finally 
terminated a dispute, which had from time to time 
perplexed and disturbed both Church and State for 
several hundred years. After the passing of the act 
of council, Primate Ussher was commanded to draw up 
a state of the controversy, and accordingly he wrote 
a short discourse upon the subject, which is depo- 
sited among the manuscripts of Trinity College, 
Dublin. 

At Christmas, 1629? in that season which ought 
to inspire universal benevolence, Archbishop Bulke- 
ley under the pretence that the Jesuits and friars of 
Dublin were infusing sedition amongst the Roman 
Catholic inhabitants, applied to the Lords Justices 
for a warrant and a file of musketeers to seize the 
offenders. Intolerance sat at the council board, a 
military escort was ordered out, but the Carmelites 
of Cook-street resisted the execution of the warrant, 
(as alleged by the author of " Foxes and Firebrands," 
one of those scandalous pamphlets, that in every age 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 263 

are found to pander to the prejudices and bad passions 
of the ignorant and credulous), and their audience and 
flock, as might be expected, assailed the soldiers, af- 
fronted the archbishop, who had arrogated to himself 
to be their accuser and their avenger, and obliged him 
to take shelter in a house. " The Lords Justices there- 
upon committed the Popish aldermen and others of the 
citizens, and on the 9th of January following commu- 
nicated the transaction to the privy council of England, 
who, on the last day of the same month, issued their 
orders for a due execution of the law, and commanded 
" that the house, where these friars appeared in their 
habits, and where the archbishop received the first 
affront, should be demolished, and left as a mark 
of terror to the resisters of authority, and that the 
rest'of the houses of these suspicious societies should 
be converted to houses of correction and other public 
uses ; and further, that all fit means should be used 
to discover the founders, benefactors> and maintainers 
of such societies and colleges, and certify their names, 
and to find out the lands, leases, or revenues apply- 
ing to their uses, and dispose thereof according to 
the law, and to certify also the places of all such 
monasteries, priories, nunneries, and other religious 
houses, and the names of all such persons as have put 
themselves to be brothers and sisters therein, espe- 
cially such as are of note, to the end such evil plants 
be not permitted to take root any where in that 
kingdom. For the supply of munition," it adds, 
" which you have reason to desire, we have taken 



264 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

effectual order that you shall receive it with all con- 
venient speed.' 5 * 

Notwithstanding all this zeal against service and 
worship according to the forms of the Church of 
Rome, it appears that the Articles of that of England 
were not held or reputed to be those of the Church 
of Ireland until l634,f and then under the following 
singular circumstances, as detailed in Lord Strafford's 
State Letters : A convocation was assembled in 
Dublin, " the lower house of which had appointed 
a select committee to consider the canons of the 
Church of England, and I found," says Strafford, J 
" that they did proceed in the examination without 
conferring at all with their bishops ; that they had 
gone through the Book of Canons, and noted in the 
margin such as they allowed with an A, and on others 
they had entered a D, which stood for deliberandum; 
that in the fifth article they had brought the Articles 
of Ireland (of 1615 J to be allowed and received 
under the pain of excommunication ; and that they 
had drawn up their canons into a body, and were 
ready that afternoon to make report in the convoca- 
tion. I instantly sent for Dean Andrews, (afterwards 
Bishop of Ferns,) that reverend clerk who sat forsooth 
in the chair at this committee, requiring him to 
bring along the aforesaid book of canons so noted in 
the margin, together with the draft he was to present 



* Cabala, vol. ii. p. 241, &c. 

t See Borlase's Irish Rebellion, p. 238. 

% State Letters, vol. i. p. 323. 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 265 

that afternoon to the house. But when I came to 
open the book and ran over their deliberandums in the 
margin, I confess I was not so moved since I came 
into Ireland ; I told him certainly not a dean of Li- 
merick, but an Ananias, had sat in the chair of that 
committee ; however sure I was, an Ananias had been 
there in spirit if not in body, with all the fraternities 
and conventicles of Amsterdam, that I was ashamed 
and scandalized with it above measure. I therefore 
said he should leave the book and draft with me, and 
that I did command him upon his allegiance, he 
should report nothing to the house from that com- 
mittee until he heard again from me. Being thus 
nettled, I gave present direction for a meeting, and 
warned the primate, the Bishops of Meath, Kilmore, 
Raphoe, and Derry, together with Dean Lesley the 
prolocutor, and all those who had been of the com- 
mittee to be with me the next morning ; then I 
publicly told them how unlike clergymen, that owed 
canonical obedience to their superiors, they had pro- 
ceeded ; how unheard a part it was for a few petty 
clerks to presume to make articles of faith, without 
the privity or consent of State or bishop, with a spirit 
of Brownism and contradiction. I observed on their 
deliberandums, as if indeed they purposed at once to 
take away all government and order forth of the 
Church, and leave every man to choose his own high 
place where liked him best ; but those heady and ar- 
rogant courses I was not to endure, nor if they were 
disposed to be frantic in this dead and cold season of 
the year, would I suffer them either to be mad in 



266 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

the convocation or in their pulpits." After which, 
his lordship declared to them all, that no other ques- 
tion should be put at their meeting, but that for 
allowing and receiving the Articles of the Church of 
England without admitting any other discourse at all; 
for that he would no tendure that the Articles of the 
Church of England should be disputed. "And finally," 
proceeds his lordship, " because there should be no 
question in the canon that was thus to be voted, I 
did desire my lord primate would be pleased to 
frame it, and after I had perused it I would send the 
prolocutor a draft of the canon to be propounded, 
enclosed in a letter of my own. This meeting thus 
broke off, there were some hot spirits sons of thunder 
amongst them, who moved, that they should petition 
me for a free synod ; but in fine they could not agree 
amongst themselves who should put the bell about 
the cat's neck, and so this likewise vanished. The 
primate accordingly framed the canon, which I not 
so well approving, drew up one myself more after the 
words of the canon in England, which I held best 
for me to keep as close too as I could, and then sent 
it to my lord. His Grace came instantly unto me, and 
told me he feared the canon would never pass in such 
form as I had made it, but he was hopeful, as he had 
drawn it, it might, and besought me therefore to 
think a little better of it ; but I confess, having taken 
a little jealousy that his proceedings were not open 
and free to those ends I had my eye upon, it was too 
late now either to persuade or affright me ; I told his 
lordship I was resolved to put it to them in these 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 2()7 

very words, and was most confident there were not 
six in the houses that would refuse them, telling 
him by the signal we should see, whether his lordship 
or myself better understood their minds on that 
point, and by that I would be content to be judged. 
Only for order sake I desired his lordship would vote 
this canon first in the upper house of convocation, 
and so voted, then to pass the question beneath also. 
Without any delay then I writ a letter to Dean Les- 
ley, a copy whereof I likewise send you, with the 
canon enclosed, which accordingly that afternoon was 
unanimously voted, first with the bishops, and then 
by the rest of the clergy, excepting one man, who 
did singly deliberate upon the receiving of the Arti- 
cles of England." The remarkable canon was in 
the following words : " For the manifestation of our 
agreement with the Church of England on the con- 
fession of the same Christian faith and doctrine of 
the sacraments, we do receive and approve the book 
of Articles of Religion, as agreed upon by the arch- 
bishops and bishops and the whole clergy in the 
convocation holden at London, A. D. 1562, for the 
avoiding of diversity of opinions and the establishing 
of consent touching true religion ; and therefore, if 
any hereafter shall affirm that any of these matters 
are in any part superstitious or erroneous, or such as 
he may not with a good conscience subscribe unto, 
let him be excommunicated and not absolved before 
he make a public revocation of his error." 

The above was, perhaps, says Doctor Curry, "the 
highest exertion of lay ecclesiastical authority that was 



268 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

ever known in this or any other kingdom ; for, as by 
this canon excommunication is denounced against 
all those, who should affirm that the Articles of the 
Church of England are such, as they might not, with 
a good conscience, subscribe unto ; and as the mem- 
bers of this convocation seem to have thought them 
to be really such, for, otherwise, they would have 
more readily acquiesced in them, it appears that 
those bishops and clergy were then obliged to sub- 
scribe to a course denouncing excommunication against 
themselves, in case they should ever after venture their 
real opinion of those Articles."* Those canons, being 
thereupon published by his majesty's authority, under 
the great seal of Ireland, are the canons and consti- 
tutions still observed in the Established Church of 
Ireland, f 

In this year, (1634,) at a national synod of the 
archbishop, his suffragans, and the clergy of this pro- 
vince, as of the others in Ireland, a liberal subsidy was 
voted for the service of the State by them ; " being 
lately," as they allege in their address, " dejected and 
depressed to the lowest degree of misery and contempt 
by the wars and confusion of former times ; having our 
churches ruined, our habitations left desolate, our pos- 
sessions aliened, our persons scorned, our very lives 
hourly subject to the bloody attempts of rebellious 
traitors, and now by the piety and bounty of your 
blessed father, and by the gracious influence of your 



* Curry's Review, B. iii. c. II. 
t Nicholson's Irish History, p. 76. 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 2(){) 

sacred majesty, being new enlivened, and beginning 
to lift up our heads out of darkness and obscurity, do 
freely acknowledge to your immortal glory, that, as no 
Church under heaven did more stand in need, so none 
did ever find more royal and munificent patrons and 
protectors than the poor Church of Ireland. You 
have not only made restitution of that which the ini- 
quity of former ages had bereft us of, but also, as 
though you intended to expiate their faults, enriched 
us with new and princely endowments, to which infi- 
nite obligations, and many others, we may add your 
majesty's inestimable goodness in providing for us your 
present deputy, Thomas Viscount Wentworth, a go- 
vernor so just, careful, provident, and propitious to the 
Church. By the act of parliament, (10 Chas. I. sess. 
3, c. 23,) which confirmed this clerical grant, the col- 
lectors thereof were empowered to enforce its pay- 
ment by the authority of the censures of the Church ; 
that is to say, by suspension, excommunication, or in- 
terdiction ; and also by sequestration of the fruits and 
profits of the benefices and promotions spiritual, or 
by distress on the farmers and occupiers of the lands 
chargeable therewith. In the same session an act was 
passed, whereby all archbishops and bishops of this 
kingdom, to whom any manors, lands, tithes, pensions, 
profits, or other hereditaments had been, or should 
thereafter be granted, for the maintenance of any col- 
lege, school, lecture, &c. ; or for the relief or mainte- 
nance of any poor or impotent persons ; or for the 
building or repairing of any church, college, school, 



270 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

or hospital ; or for the maintenance of any preacher ; 
or the erection or repair of any bridges, causeways, 
highways, or any other like lawful and charitable use, 
are compellable in the Court of Chancery to perform 
said trusts according to the true intent of the charters 
to them made." In the following session an act was 
passed (10 & 11 Chas. I. c. 2,) authorizing and faci- 
litating the restitution of impropriations and tithes 
to the clergy, regulating the endowment of perpetual 
vicars, and the rights of presentation, and prescribing 
that all vicars, so endowed, should be chargeable with 
the repairs of the chancels of their respective churches. 
While the next act of the session made all convey- 
ances, leases, and charges by ecclesiastical persons 
void, with certain exceptions. 

Carte, speaking of the state of the Protestant 
clergy in Ireland at this time, says, "scandalous livings 
naturally make scandalous ministers, the clergy of the 
Established Church were generally ignorant and un- 
learned, loose and irregular in their lives and conver- 
sations, negligent of their cures, and very careless of 
observing uniformity and decency in divine worship."* 
While Lord Wentworth, in a letter to Archbishop 
Laud, described them as an " unlearned clergy which 
have not so much as the outward form of churchmen 
to cover themselves with, nor their persons any ways 
reverenced or protected, the churches unbuilt, the 
parsonage and vicarage houses utterly ruined, the peo- 
ple untaught through the non-residency of the clergy, 



* Life of Ormonde, vol. i, p. 68. 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 271 

occasioned by the unlimited shameful numbers of 
spiritual promotions with cure of souls which they 
hold by commendams, the rites and ceremonies of 
the Church run over without all decency of order, 
habit, or gravity in the course of their service, the 
possessions of the Church to a great proportion in lay 
hands, the bishops aliening their very principal houses 
and demesnes to their children, to strangers, and farm- 
ing out their jurisdictions to mean and unworthy 
persons, the Popish titulars exercising the while a 
foreign jurisdiction much greater than theirs."* 

In 1635 Archbishop Bulkeleyhad a confirmation 
from the king to him, and his successors, of all former 
grants, liberties, and privileges belonging to the see. 
This charter very fully details in particular the ex- 
tent and privileges of the manor of St. Sepulchre's 
and its liberties. 

In 1639 an act of parliament was passed, whereby, 
after reciting that the ancient glebes of churches 
could not be found, " through the war and confusion of 
former times in this kingdom," it was enacted that 
any devout person might, without any licence of mort- 
main, endow churches having no glebes, or having not 
above 10a. of glebe, with new glebe, provided the 
total glebe of any one church so endowed should not 
exceed 40a. at the most. In the ensuing year, a pri- 
vate act secured to this prelate, styled " William 
Bulkeley, priest," several and respective estates in 
divers lands in the counties of Dublin, Wicklow and 

* Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. p. 187. 



272 ArtCHBrsHOPS of Dublin. 

Kildare, or in some or one of them. The Commons' 
Journals of the immediately succeeding years afford 
abundant evidence, as amongst the grievances voted 
by parliament, of the scandalous extortions sanctioned 
in the ecclesiastical courts under the pretext of exact- 
ing dues for services revered in the old establish- 
ment, but unpractised and condemned as idolatry 
by the reformers. In the emphatic language of the 
petition of the Ulster dissenters, " the prelates and 
their faction, as they inherit the superstition of the 
Popery, so of late, they exact with all severity the 
obsolete customs of St. Mary's gallons, mortuaries, 
&c, which, as they were given by superstition and 
used to idolatry, so now they are taken by oppression 
and applied to riotousness."* 

In June, 1646> this prelate was one of the council 
who signed and issued the proclamation confirmatory 
of the peace concluded in that month, between the 
Marquis of Ormonde and the Roman Catholics, " in 
the hope conceived by his Majesty, that it may pre- 
vent further effusion of his subjects' blood, redeem 
them out of all the miseries and calamities under 
which they now suffer, restore them to all quietness 
and happiness under his Majesty's most gracious go- 
vernment, deliver the kingdom in general from those 
slaughters, depredations, rapines, and spoils, which 
always accompany a war, encourage the subjects and 
others with comfort to betake themselves to trade, 
traffic, commerce, manufacture, and all other things 

* Pryn. Ant. of P-elacy, vol. ii. p. 375. 



LANCELOT BULKELEY. 273 

which uninterrupted may increase the wealth and 
strength of the kingdom, and beget in all his Ma- 
jesty's subjects of this kingdom, a perfect unity 
amongst themselves, after their too long continued 

division. 5 ' 

In 1647? on the surrender of Dublin to the com- 
missioners of the parliament, one of their first acts 
was to prohibit the use of the Book of Common 
Prayer, and require the directory for worship to be 
adopted in all the churches of the city. The clergy 
of the Established Church, who had gathered into 
Dublin while it was occupied by Ormonde, protested 
against this order, and presented a remonstrance to 
the commissioners, but without success. The direc- 
tory was adopted throughout the city, and the Book 
of Common Prayer only continued to be used in the 
Chapel of Trinity College, then accounted in the 
suburbs. In two years afterwards, however, when 
Archbishop Bulkeley preached his farewell sermon to 
his clergy in St. Patrick's Cathedral, at which were 
present, the two Parrys, John and Benjamin, both 
of whom were subsequently bishops of Ossory, 
Thomas Seele, afterwards Provost of Trinity College 
and Dean of St. Patrick's, Mr. Bos well, Prebendary 
of St. John's, &c., the Common Prayer was read by 
William Pilsworth, minister ; but for doing so, the 
usurping powers visited them with severe punish- 
ment, not only committing the archbishop but all 
who were present to prison. Nor did the hostility 
of the usurping powers to this prelate cease even 
there ; immediately afterwards, at the close of the 



274 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

same year, (8th of March, old style,) an act was 
passed by the English parliament, whereby, " for the 
encouragement and increase of learning, and the true 
knowledge and worship of God, and the advance- 
ment of the Protestant religion in Ireland," it was 
enacted that all the honors, castles, lordships, manors, 
&c, which theretofore belonged to the late Archbishop 
of Dublin, and to the late dean and chapter of St. Pa- 
trick's, (treating them as persons who had abdicated 
their respective dignities,) and the farm of Ardbracken, 
with the parsonage of Trim, belonging to the bishop- 
ric of Meath, should be, and were thereby vested 
in Henry Ireton, President of Munster, William 
Basil, Esq., Attorney General for Ireland, Colonel 
Venables, Sir Robert King, Colonel Henry Crom- 
well, John Cooke, Esq., Doctor Henry Jones, Doc- 
tor Jonathan Godhard, Colonel Hierome Sankey, 
&c, their heirs and assigns for ever, in trust for the 
better support of Trinity College, the erection and 
maintenance of a second College in Dublin, and the 
founding of a free school with suitable masters, &c, 
to be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant. On the 
day in which this act was passed, the same parliament 
entered into resolutions for the abolition of the hier- 
archy in Ireland, and the discontinuance of the Book 
of Common Prayer there. 

" Spent with grief for the calamities of the 
times," and the sufferings of his Church, Doctor 
Bulkeley departed this life at Tallagh, on the 8th of 
September, 1650, in the eighty-second year of his 
age. His body was conveyed thence, and buried in 



I 



JAMES MARGETSON. 2 75 

St. Patrick's Cathedral under the communion table. 
He left several children by his wife Alice, who was 
the daughter of Roland Bulkeley of Conway, but his 
only known literary production was a pamphlet, en- 
titled, " Proposals for sending back the Nobility and 
Gentry of Ireland," now extremely scarce, although 
its circulation had but little efficacy. 



JAMES MARGETSON. 
[Succ. 1660. Resign. 1663.] 

This see, during ten years after the death of 
Bulkeley, was unrepresented in the Protestant hie- 
rarchy, but, on the Restoration, James Margetson, 
Doctor of Divinity, was promoted thereto by King 
Charles's letters patent, dated 25th of January in 
the twelfth year of his reign, and his mandate for 
consecration^ writ of restitution, and mesne profits 
issued the same day. He had, on the preceding 18th 
of January, been advanced to the treasurership of 
St. Patrick's, Dublin, and his grant of the prelacy 
contained a permission to hold that dignity as in 
commendam, together with the rectory of Gallowne, 
a/zas Dartree, in the county of Monaghan and diocese 
of Clogher, and the prebend of Desertmore in St. 
Finbar's Cathedral, Cork. 

Doctor Margetson was born in 1600 at Drigh- 
lington, in Yorkshire, and received his education in 
Peter House College, Cambridge, whence he was 
promoted to the parish of Watlas in his own county. 
Here he attracted the notice of Lord Viscount 

t 2 



276 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Went worth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, who, on 
being appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, brought 
him over with him in 1633, and obliged him to re- 
sign his parish in Yorkshire. In 1635 he was pre- 
sented to the rectory and vicarage of Annagh, in 
Kilmore diocese ; was afterwards advanced to the 
deanery of Waterford ; in 1637 to that of Derry ; 
and in 1639 was made Dean of Christ Church 
Dublin, pro-vice chancellor of the university there, 
and prolocutor of the lower house of convocation. 
Throughout the troubled period of 1641, his charity 
and benevolence to the sufferers were singularly 
eminent. In July 1647 he joined in a remon- 
strance to the commissioners of the English Parlia- 
ment, praying liberty for the use of the Common 
Prayer in their respective churches, and rejecting the 
directory ordered to be used in lieu thereof ; soon after 
which the war obliged him to fly to England, where, 
however, he encountered unexpected evils, as great 
and general as those from which he had fled. At 
length, having been taken by the parliamentary 
party, he was thrown into Manchester gaol, and hur- 
ried from prison to prison, until ultimately he was 
released in exchange for three or four officers. He 
afterwards retired to London, as the most private and 
safe retreat, but not with any view to decline aiding 
the royal cause where his ability could promote it. 
Accordingly, during the protectorate, many noble- 
men and gentlemen of the king's party, who dared 
not appear publicly in the matter themselves, pri- 
vately employed him as a person of an inviolate in- 



JAMES MARGETSON. 277 

tegrity, to distribute their alms to the needy and 
reduced cavaliers. Although the dangers were many 
that attended this employment, yet he undertook it 
with the greatest cheerfulness, and discharged it with 
the utmost fidelity, travelling through England and 
Wales many times upon this errand, and relieving 
also numbers, both of the clergy and others, who 
were reduced to the severest poverty. Among the 
objects of this, his benevolence, was Chappel, Bishop 
of Cork and Ross, a refugee upon the same account. 
It was while wrestling with the adversities and dangers 
of this period of his life, that, according to his bio- 
grapher, " he happened on a gentleman sick and on his 
death bed, to whom he administered spiritual comforts, 
together with the holy offices of the Church on such 
occasions. By that dying person he was told, that he 
had been sometimes one near on attendance on that 
late sacred martyr King Charles the First in his soli- 
tude, that to him had been by the king delivered, and 
committed to his charge and care to be preserved, 
those papers which he said he knew to have been 
written by the king's own hand, and which were after 
published with the title of EIKX1N BASIAIKHV 

When King Charles the Second was restored to 
the throne of his ancestors, Doctor Margetson was 
selected to fill the metropolitical chair of this province, 
and was accordingly consecrated its archbishop in St. 
Patrick's Cathedral, on the 27th of January, 1660, 
being the very remarkable occasion when eleven 
other prelates were also consecrated for the ecclesi- 
astical service of Ireland. In the same year he made 



278 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

a visitation of the church of Penkridge, in Stafford- 
shire, the manor and advowson of which had been, 
as before mentioned, granted to Archbishop de 
Loundres, and enjoyed by his successors. In 1661, 
the declaration requiring all persons " to conform to 
Church government by episcopacy, and to the liturgy 
as established by law, having been adopted by the 
lords, on the motion of Lord Montgomery of the 
Ards, (who had twice solemnly sworn in the covenant 
to extirpate prelacy,) and having been on the follow- 
ing day agreed to by the commons, it was read, under 
the sanction of this prelate, by all the ministers of 
Dublin in their respective churches, and afterwards 
similarly promulgated through the kingdom. 

In 1662 this prelate enforced the principle of 
jurisdiction and control over the pulpits of his dio- 
cese, as has been recently asserted by the present 
Archbishop Whateley. The reader, w r ho may feel 
interested in the details of the occurrence, will find 
them in Kennetfs Register, p. 784, &c. In the 
same year an act was passed (14 & 15 Char. II. 
c. 10.,) authorizing the chief governor of Ireland, with 
the approbation of the respective archbishops and 
bishops, and the consent of the patrons and incum- 
bents, to unite and divide parishes, to change the 
sites of churches or of free schools of royal or dio- 
cesan foundation, to exchange glebes, disappropriate 
benefices, and to unite presentative benefices to sine- 
cures, saving always the rights of presentation or 
collation. In the same session the prelates and clergy 
of Ireland granted to the king " eight whole and 



JAMES MARGETSON. 279 

entire subsidies of four shillings in the pound, to be 
taken and levied off all and singular the promotions 
spiritual within the same kingdom." At this time 
Margetson was one of the spiritual peers who voted 
for the third reading of the Act of Settlement. 
During the time he presided over this see, he libe- 
rally contributed to the repair of both its cathedrals ; 
but this interval was short, and in 1663, on the death 
of Primate Bramhall, he was translated to the province 
of Armagh by letters patent, dated the 29th of Au- 
gust, 1663, and on the same day had his writ of re- 
stitution to the temporalities, with a grant of the 
mesne profits from the death of his predecessor. He 
was also soon afterwards chosen Vice Chancellor of 
Trinity College, Dublin, a dignity which he held 
during his life. 

He died in August, 1678? and was buried in 
Christ Church. " As to his private estate and for- 
tunes," said Doctor Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath, 
in his funeral sermon, " God blessed him in that 
abundantly. It was objected to him that in England 
he had laid out what he had acquired in Ireland, and 
not there rather where he had it; but it is well 
known that even in Ireland he laid out for a settle- 
ment for one of his children no less than £4,000 at 
once, and the like sum of £4,000 more towards the 
settlement there of another of his children. He was 
also on purchasing not far off an estate, sold after 
for £6,000, which he might have had cheaper ; but 
refused to deal in it, understanding part of it to be 
abbey land. For in all his layings out wheresoever 



280 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

he was always careful not to meddle with any concern 
of the Church, nor with tithes, nor with what did be- 
long to abbeys, having oft observed the evil of that 
to their possessors." He erected a free school at 
Drighlington, in Yorkshire, his birth-place, and en- 
dowed it with a large yearly revenue for ever. 



MICHAEL BOYLE. 
[Succ. 1663. Resign. 1678.] 

Michael Boyle, successor of Archbishop Marget- 
son, was the son of Richard Boyle, Archbishop of 
Tuam. In 1637 he was incorporated master of arts at 
Oxford, subsequently took the degree of doctor of 
divinity in the University of Dublin, and in 1640 was 
made Dean of Cloyne. Lord Castlehaven, in his 
Memoirs, relates an interesting circumstance con- 
nected with him at this period of his life, or rather in 
the year 1644, when that nobleman made his ren- 
dezvous at Clonmel. " Thither," he writes, " came 
Dean Boyle, who was then married to my Lord 
Inhciquin's sister ; his business was to persuade me 
to spare Doneraile and other houses and castles not 
tenable ; I answered, that I desired it as much as he, 
tnough hitherto they had annoyed the country equally 
as if they had been strong ; I told him, in short* I 
had orders to take all I could, and such as I thought 
not fit to garrison to destroy; yet, if he pleased to 
cause the garrisons to be drawn out, and by letters 
from the owners to put them into my hands, I would 
appoint some few men unto them, with commanders 



MICHAEL BOYLE. 281 

in whom I most confided, and would make it my 
business to intercede to the council to preserve them. 
The dean and I parted good friends ; but whether he 
could prevail or no with my Lord Inchiquin or the 
owners I know not, but I heard no more from him." 
In 1660 this divine was, by letters patent, advanced to 
the sees of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, having been a little 
before called into the privy council, and was one of the 
twelve bishops, who, as before alluded to, were conse- 
crated together in St. Patrick's Church,after the Resto- 
ration. Not content with the aforesaid three bishoprics, 
he held possession of six parishes in the western portion 
of his diocese, as sinecures, under colour that he could 
not get clergymen to serve them, in consequence of 
which he received a very severe reproof from his re- 
lative, Roger Earl of Orrery, Lord President of Mun- 
ster. In 1663 he was translated to the archbishopric 
of Dublin, with writ of restitution of its temporalities, 
and a grant of the mesne profits from the translation 
of his predecessor, and of the same preferments which 
he had held in commendam. 

For Doctor Boyle was more peculiarly reserved the 
enjoyment of beholding his Church, as it were, rising 
out of its own ruins. In 1665 were passed the acts for 
the uniformity of public prayer, the administration of 
sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies, and for es- 
tablishing the form of making, ordaining, and conse- 
crating bishops, priests, and deacons in the Church of 
Ireland; the act for assessing ministers' money in 
cities and corporate towns, the act for disabling spiri- 
tual persons from holding benefices or ecclesiastical 



282 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

dignities in England or Wales, and in Ireland at the 
same time, and the act for abolishing unreasonable 
forms of tithings and oblations and settling a table 
thereof. In 1667 the prelate himself had a grant to 
him and his successors of the town and lands of Jor- 
danstown in the parish of Swords, with other lands 
therein; also of Collinstown, Great and Little Roween, 
Kilruske, &c, in the counties of Dublin and Cork ;* 
and, by the Act of Settlement, had a further confirma- 
tion of the lands of his see, together with an aug- 
mentation of so much of the forfeited lands as should 
increase the total income of the dioceses of Dublin 
and Glendalough, over and above certain manors and 
raensal lands, to the yearly value of £2,000; and in 
1 668 he and the respective deans of his two cathe- 
drals, had a grant of several impropriations, rectories, 
and tithes in the counties of Longford, Galway, Mayo, 
Limerick, Westmeath, Cork, Kilkenny, and Wex- 
ford, to hold in trust to the use of the vicars and 
choirmen of Christ Church and St. Patrick's.f 

Having repaired and considerably beautified the 
palace of St. Sepulchre's, while he resided there, he 
was translated to Armagh by the king's letter, dated 
the 27th of January, 1678, with which last preferment 
he held the chancellorship of Ireland for twenty-two 
years. He sat in King James's parliament in 1689? 
and dying in 1702, was buried at midnight in St. 
Patrick's Cathedral under the altar. The town of 
Blessington, in the county of Wicklow, was founded 

* Rot. Pat. in Cane. Hib. f Rot. in Cane. Hib. 



JOHN PARKER. 283 

by him, and there he erected a magnificent country 
house, a domestic chapel, and a parish church. The 
title of Viscount Blessington was in consequence 
granted to his son, Morrough Boyle, who raised a very 
handsome cenotaph to the memory of his father, in 
St. Mary's Church, in that town. 



JOHN PARKER. 
[Succ. 1678. Ob. 1651.] 

John Parker, the son of John Parker, prebendary 
of Maynooth, and born in Dublin, was in 1642 made 
a petty canon of St. Patrick's, and subsequently Pre- 
bendary of St. Michan's, and Dean of Killala, where- 
upon he took his degree of bachelor of divinity in 
Trinity College, Dublin, and was chaplain to the 
Marquis, afterwards Duke of Ormonde, while lord 
lieutenant of Ireland. In 1649 Cromwell caused 
him to be stripped of all his preferments and cast 
into prison, on suspicion of having been employed as 
a spy by the marquis, who was then labouring to 
reduce Dublin to the king's obedience. After some 
months, however, Ormonde procured his enlarge- 
ment, and zealously patronized him until his with- 
drawal into France, w T hen Parker likewise removed 
to England. On the Restoration this divine was 
promoted to the bishopric of Elphin, whence he was 
translated in 1667 to Tuam, and in 1678 from that 
dignity to the archdiocese of Dublin, whereupon he 
was admitted into the privy council. With his sees 
he held in commendam the rectory of Gallowne, alias 



284 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Dartree, in the county of Monaghan, the treasurer- 
ship of St. Patrick's, Dublin, and the prebend of 
Desertmore, in the church of St. Finbar, in the dio- 
cese of Cork. 

He died on the 28th of December, 1681, at 
St. Sepulchre's, Dublin, and was buried in Christ 
Church, Michael Boyle, Archbishop of Armagh, his 
predecessor in this see, performing the last office. 
By his will, dated 27th of April, 1 680, he devised to 
the poor of Elphin £12, to the poor of Tuam £10, 
to the poor of St. Sepulchre's, Dublin, £20, to 
Christ Church in that city £40 to buy a pair of 
silver candlesticks for the communion table, and to 
the Blue Boys' Hospital in Oxmantown £50. Dur- 
ing the ensuing vacancy of the see Sir John Topham, 
Vicar- General, was by both chapters chosen guardian 
of the spiritualities. 

FRANCIS MARSH. 
[Succ. 1681. Ob. 1693.] 

Parker's successor, Francis Marsh, Doctor of 
Divinity, of the University of Dublin, was born in 
Gloucestershire, in October, 1627> and educated in 
the free school of Gloucester, " where he made such 
early and nimble advances in grammatical learning, 
that by thirteen years of age he was fit to be admitted 
into Emanuel College, Cambridge, whence he was 
elected into a fellowship in Gonville and Caius Col- 
lege, in which latter society he continued till the 
restoration of the royal family. On the promotion 
of Doctor Jeremy Taylor to the united sees of Down 



FRANCIS MARSH. 285 

and Connor in 1660, Marsh was immediately sent 
for by that prelate, who put him into deacon's and 
priest's orders, and in the same year procured for 
him a presentation to the deanery of St. Saviour's 
of Connor. In the following year (19th of June, 
1661) he was advanced by the influence of Lord 
Chancellor Hide to the deanery of Armagh, and on 
the 3 1st of March, 1664, to the archdeaconry of 
Dromore, c pleno jure,' with a clause of union of the 
same to the deanery of Armagh, in which prefer- 
ments he continued until his promotion to the sees 
of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe, in 1667? whence 
he was translated in 1672 to those of Kilmore and 
Ardagh, and thence to this dignity by the king's 
letter, dated 14th of February, 1681 ; in a few days 
after which he was enthroned in St. Patrick's, Dub- 
lin. The visitation sermon preached upon this occa- 
sion by his grace's chaplain, Doctor Samuel Foley, is 
preserved, and contains sentiments of Christian cha- 
rity, which it had been well were more frequently 
reiterated on such occasions. " Let us not," said the 
preacher, " under pretence of zeal against Popery, 
countenance or support a faction, or out of a project 
of an impossible union put people in the head to 
desire that all ecclesiastical laws be taken away, 
and that they be allowed to do what they please. 
The second duty I conceive at this time to be very 
necessary is, that of love and peace amongst our- 
selves ; a kingdom divided against itself, our Saviour 
tells us, cannot stand. We are all brethren and sons 
of the same mother. Let us therefore love as bre- 
thren, and be of the same mind If there be 



286 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

any among us, who will not endure that others do 
differ from them in opinion, and will make their own 
sentiments the rule of faith, they are to be pitied, 
and desired to reflect on the many sects and divisions 
which were among the ancient philosophers and later 
disputing Christians, on the common infirmity of hu- 
man nature, and on their own many frailties, and 
to remember that it is not modest to impose magis- 
terially all their own dreams or borrowed fancies upon 
others, on pain of being delared heretical if they 
receive them not, or to think that all men are blind 
or unconcerned how matters go, but they. . . . Let 
us do our own duties, be holy and innocent in our 
lives, laborious and industrious in our cures, resolute 
and unshaken in our loyalty and our faith, in perfect 
love and charity with one another, and entirely con- 
formable to our legal constitutions." 

Doctor Marsh, during the whole time of his filling 
this dignity, held with it the same preferments which 
his immediate predecessor had enjoyed, and in 1686, 
on being installed in the chapter as treasurer of St. 
Patrick's, took the oath of canonical obedience to the 
dean ; he afterwards however, separated the treasurer- 
ship from his preferments, in favour of his son on 
whom he conferred it. In the same year, on the arrival 
of Lord Tyrconnel to take upon him the govern- 
ment of this country, it was at this prelate's palace 
the council was assembled to receive him, and there 
Lord Clarendon (who had by particular favour been 
directed to retain the government for one week after 
TyrconnePs landing) surrendered the sword to the 



FRANCIS MARSH. 287 

new viceroy, " with an admirable speech, setting 
forth his exact observance of the commands of the 
king, his master, and faithful discharging of that 
great trust which had been committed to him, and 
concluding with his impartial administration of justice 
to all parties, in those or the like words addressed to 
Tyrconnel, c that, as he had kept an equal hand of 
justice to the Roman Catholics, so, he hoped his lord- 
ship would to the Protestants; never was a sword 
washed with so many tears as this ;' : and in truth, if 
impartiality could bind the people of Ireland, the 
annals of its viceroyalty afford few instances of one 
so well inclined to serve them by that qualification 
on almost all occurrences, as the illustrious nobleman 
for whom such universal regard was avowed on this 
occasion. 

During the administration of Clarendon's succes- 
sor, Archbishop Marsh, feeling he had not the ma- 
terials of character to uphold him through those stir- 
ring times, fled to England with his wife and three 
children, substituting on this occasion the celebrated 
Doctor William King, as his commissary to visit and 
superintend the diocese in his absence. King, how- 
ever, believing his commission not legally executed, 
declined the office and procured the two chapters to 
elect Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath, adminis- 
trator of the spiritualties during the absence of the 
archbishop, and, in conjunction with that prelate, he 
governed the see, and supplied with curates such 
parishes as had been deserted by the Protestant in- 
cumbents. On the expulsion of James the Second, 



288 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Archbishop Marsh returned to Ireland, and in the 
January following held a visitation at St. Patrick's, 
which was attended only by the prebendaries of Yago, 
St. Audeon's, Howth, Tipperkevin, andStagonil; and 
this and another held in the following month, were 
the only meetings of the chapter of St. Patrick's 
until after the battle of the Boyne. This acknow- 
ledged desertion of their cures by the Protestant 
clergy in the time of James, is strongly contrasted 
with the devoted adhesion of the Roman Catholic 
priests to their parishes and flocks during the reign 
of William the Third, as related by Schomberg. " I 
do not find," says the marshal in a letter to the 
latter monarch, dated in December, 1689? " that the 
ministers apply themselves enough to their duty, 
whilst the Romish priests are passionate to exhort the 
people to die for the Church of Rome, in putting 
themselves at their head."* And Lord Clarendon, in 
one of his letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
tells his grace, " that very few of the clergy resided 
in their cures, but employed pitiful curates, which 
necessitated the people to look after a Romish priest 
or a nonconformist preacher, of both which there 
was plenty."f It may be also mentioned, that Queen 
Mary, in a letter to King William, in July, 1690, 
uses the remarkable words, " I must put you in mind 
of one thing, believing it now the season, (the king 
was then in Ireland,) which is, that you would take 

* Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 59. f Id. vol. i. p. 223. 



FRANCIS MARSH. 289 

care of the Church in Ireland, every body agrees that 
it is the worst in Christendom."^ 

While Doctor Marsh filled this dignity, he, at his 
own expense, considerably beautified and enlarged 
the palace of St. Sepulchre's, where on the 16th of 
November, 1693, he died of apoplexy, and was 
buried in Christ Church near the communion table ; 
his funeral sermon having been preached by Doctor 
Dopping, Bishop of Meath, who gives him the cha- 
racter of having been a prelate greatly skilled in the 
Greek language, and in the Stoic philosophy, af- 
fable, mild, grave, and of an unblameable life. " Tis 
an argument," added Doctor Dopping on this oc- 
casion "of an extraordinary providence as well as of 
great merit, that preferments drop into the mouths 
of some, when others are forced to court like coy 
mistresses, and after all meet with disappointment ; 
but this archbishop has been rather courted by pre- 
ferments than a solicitor of them, which ought there- 
fore to give a due value and esteem to his memory 
and reputation." On his death, this see was offered 
to Doctor Thomas Tenison, afterwards Archbishop of 
Canterbury, a promotion which it is said he was wil- 
ling to accept, and in the contemplation of it re- 
quested King William, " in behalf of the poor Irish 
clergy," that the forfeited impropriations belonging 
to the estates of the Roman Catholics might be all 
restored to the respective parish churches; and his Ma- 
jesty considered it a reasonable proposition, but some 



* Daliymple's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 154. 

U 



290 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

unforeseen difficulties arising, the project was not 
carried into execution.^ 



NARCISSUS MARSH. 
[Succ. 1694. Resign. 1702.] 

Narcissus Marsh, Doctor of Divinity, was born 
at Hannington, near High worth in Wiltshire, in De- 
cember, 1638. He was descended, in the paternal 
line, from a Saxon family of his name, long pre- 
viously settled in Kent, out of which county his 
great-grandfather removed to the place of this pre- 
late's birth. The first rudiments of this divine's edu- 
cation were likewise received at Higlrworth, whence, 
having been well fitted out for the university, he 
was received into Magdalen Hall in Oxford in the 
beginning of July, 1654, and in June, 1658, was 
elected probationer fellow of Exeter Hall. In July, 
1660, he took his degree of master of arts ; in Decem- 
ber, 1 667? that of bachelor of divinity, and at last, that 
of doctor of divinity, on the 23rd of June, 1671, to 
which degree he was also admitted in the University 
of Dublin in February, 1678. During these periods 
he was made chaplain, first to the Bishop of Exeter, 
and afterwards to the Lord Chancellor Hide Earl of 
Clarendon, which latter appointment led to many of 
his future preferments. In May, 1673, he was made 
principal of Alban Hall in Oxford by the appoint- 
ment of the Duke of Ormonde, then chancellor of 
that university. As a person of accomplished learn- 
ing and prudence, he. was unanimously chosen to 



NARCISSUS MARSH. 291 

preach the anniversary sermon on the 5th of Novem- 
ber, 1667? and the act sermon in 1678, in which 
latter year he was nominated to the provostship of 
the College of Dublin, and thence was advanced to 
the bishopric of Ferns in 1682. In 1689? while he 
presided over that see, he was attainted in King 
James's parliament, but in the following year was 
translated by King William to Cashel, where he 
preached his primary visitation sermon in the church 
of St. John, on the 27th of July, 1692. In this dis- 
course he impressed upon his clergy, that "their 
sermons be plain and practical, suited to the capa- 
cities and exigencies of their hearers, treating chiefly 
of the most substantial and necessary truths in religion, 
which it behoveth every man to know in order to his 
salvation, especially concerning the fall of man, the of- 
fices of Christ, and the nature of the covenant of grace ; 
and pressing them home with practical inferences and 
observations, that may be so many rules for the pa- 
rishioners to walk by ; not amusing them with too 
sublime and speculative matters, such as are the doc- 
trine of the Trinity, of God's decrees, of the myste- 
ries of the incarnation, and the like, farther than just 
to confirm the people in a belief of the truth of these 
things, when they come so in your way, that they can- 
not well be passed over without saying something to 
them ; but not at all to attempt explaining how they 
are so, which cannot be done. Sermons to the people 
should not treat of too sublime and speculative 
matters ; nor yet, should they treat of plain and fa- 
miliar matters after too sublime and speculative a 

u 2 



292 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

a manner, as in scholastic terms running 1 out into 
needless controversies, overlarding your discourses 
with Latin and Greek, and the like, unless where 
there may be a necessity of it for explication or illus- 
tration, and there are some hearers capable of under- 
standing it." He further admonished them concern- 
ing their funeral sermons, " that they should take 
care not to be over lavish in their praises of the dead, 
lest others might thereby think themselves secure in 
following their examples." In reference to visiting 
the sick, he adds, " You are to resort to the sick 
without expecting till you are sent for ; indeed, be- 
sides the necessity of doing so in that extreme exi- 
gence for the direction of a parting soul in the right 
way to heaven, how incongruous is it that the sick 
persons should put you in mind of your duty, 
whereas you ought to put them in mind of theirs. 
The very Popish priests do shame us in this par- 
ticular, and shall they be so warm and zealous in 
a bad cause, and we be cold and negligent in a good 
one ? God forbid ; let it never be once more named 
among us ; nor yet any just occasion hereafter be 
given for men to make reflections thereupon, as 
they are too apt to do whenever the least occasion 
thereunto is administered. I shall only add hereto, 
that you should be very cautious how you behave 
yourselves towards men on their death-beds, that you 
neither run them into presumption nor despair, that 
you do not send some to hell with false hopes, and 
let others go to heaven without any ; that you do not 
give absolution upon slight repentance, nor deny it 



NARCISSUS MARSH. 293 

where the repentance is hearty and sincere, but 
without informing them how rare it is to find death- 
bed repentance to be indeed sincere." 

In May, 1694, he was further promoted to this arch- 
bishopric, and in his visitation sermon reiterated the 
most of what he had pronounced at Cashel, further 
exhorting the clergy of the province to perform divine 
service frequently in the church, " to give notice on 
every Sunday of what fast-days and holy-days are to be 
in the next week, according as the Rubric doth require, 
and to observe them themselves together with their 
parishioners." — " That the holy communion of the 
body and blood of Christ be frequently administered. " 
— " That the children in the respective parishes be 
prepared for confirmation, which is to be done by 
well instructing them in the catechism ; and that they 
and all other parishioners be instructed in the nature 
and benefit of confirmation." He further exhorted 
them to reconcile their neighbours to attend to and 
provide for the wants of the poor ; to keep registries 
of marriages, christenings, and burials ; to compile 
terriers of the glebes and church possessions, &c. &c. 

In 1 695 he had a grant to him and his successors 
for ever of the castle, town, and lands of Seatown, 
Newtown, &c, in the barony of Nethercross, and 
county of Dublin, previously the property of the 
Russell family. In the same year the acts of 28 Hen. 
VIII. c. 1 5, for the establishing of parochial schools, 
and 12 Eliz. c. 1, for maintaining diocesan free 
schools, were ordered to be enforced. In 1697? 
when it was sought to exclude Roman Catholics from 



294 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

parliament by a bill entitled, " An act for the better 
security of his majesty's person and government," 
but its provisions were considered so unjust and 
oppressive by the lords, that they negatived it by a 
considerable majority, this prelate was one of the 
fourteen peers who entered a protest, that certainly 
is not a record of their christian charity. The docu- 
ment is given in full in the " The Lords' Journals," 
vol. i. p. 664. In 1698 the bishop of Coventry and 
Litchfield wrote to Archbishop Marsh respecting 
" the peculiar of Penkridge in Staffordshire," the 
manor and advowson of which had been, as before 
mentioned, granted to Henry de Loundres, and en- 
joyed by his successors. The Bishop of Coventry on 
this occasion represented, that it had not been visited 
by any of the archbishops of Dublin since 1660, and 
he therefore prayed the permission of his grace to 
make a visitation of it in his, the archbishop's, name, 
which request was accordingly complied with ; and 
the usual commission passed the consistorial seal, em- 
powering the bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to 
visit for his Grace, " ejus peculiarem jurisdictionem 
de Penkridge." 

Doctor Marsh was ultimately translated to the 
primatial see by the queen's letter, dated at St. 
James's, 26th of January, 1702-3, and by patent of 
the 18th of the ensuing month. While he governed 
the Church of Dublin, he built a noble library near 
the palace of St. Sepulchre's, which he enlarged after 
his translation to Armagh, and filled with a choice 
collection of books, having for that purpose bought 



NARCISSUS MARSH. 295 

the library of Doctor Edward Stillingfleet, formerly 
Bishop of Worcester, to which he added his own 
collection, making a total of about 10,000 volumes; 
and, to render it more useful to the public, he plenti- 
fully endowed a librarian and sub-librarian to attend 
it, at certain prescribed hours. It is estimated, that 
besides the endowment, which amounted to £250 per 
annum, charged on certain lands in the county of 
Meath, he expended more than £4000 in the build- 
ings and books, and, to make every thing secure to 
perpetuity, he obtained an act of parliament (6 Anne 
c. 19,) for the settling and preserving it. Amongst 
other clauses, this statute declares the premises for 
ever discharged of and from all manner of taxes 
already imposed, or thereafter to be imposed by act 
of parliament, unless the same shall thereon be charged 
expressly, and by name. It is somewhat singular, 
that four bishops protested against this bill being 
passed into a law, but the reasons assigned were after- 
wards on motion withdrawn. In 1745 Marsh's li- 
brary received a considerable and most valuable col- 
lection of books and manuscripts, by the bequest of 
Doctor Sterne, Bishop of Clogher. " I am under 
a necessity," says Harris, " of acknowledging from a 
long experience, that this is the only useful library 
in the kingdom, being open to all strangers, and at 
all seasonable times ;" nor have the facilities for con- 
sulting both its books and manuscripts been lessened 
since Harris's time, they were never more liberally 
afforded than at the present day ; but the miserable 
pittance of £10 per annum, allotted for its yearly 



296 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 

refreshment, is not sufficient to keep the books in 
order. This prelate also endowed an alms-house at 
Drogheda, for the reception of twelve widows of de- 
cayed clergymen, to each of whom he allotted a 
lodging, and £20 per annum for a maintenance, pre- 
scribing, that the widows, claiming to be entitled 
to such provision, should be the widows of those 
who had served cure in the diocese of Armagh ; or, 
if there should not be enough of that class to enjoy 
the charity, then the widows of such as had served 
cure in the diocese of Meath ; and, for want of a 
sufficient number of these, then the widows of the 
province of Armagh at large. And he provided, 
that if in such places widows enough were not found 
for the fund, then the same was to be applied for 
apprenticing or educating the children of clergymen ; 
and he allotted, out of the general fund, £40 per 
annum to the dean and chapter of Armagh, to be 
expended in the support of that church. He also 
repaired many decayed churches within his diocese 
at his own expense, bought in several impropriations, 
and restored them to the Church, and even extended 
his benevolent intentions to the encouragement of the 
propagation of the gospel in the Indies. In short, 
the amount of the money he gave in acts of charity, 
was calculated to have been not less than £20,000. 
Towards the close of his life, he was during some 
years, in consequence of age and sickness, unable to 
attend much to business, yet, as Archbishop King 
observed in his funeral sermon, " he had the felicity, 
as well as prudence, to put his concerns, both spiritual 



NARCISSUS MARSH. 297 

and temporal, into such good hands, that there was 
no defect in the management of either, his diocese 
being in very good order, and a great increase added 
to his fortune." He never married, and having died 
in November 1713, in the seventy-sixth year of his 
age, was buried on the sixth of that month, in the 
churchyard of St. Patrick's, adjoining to his library, 
where there was formerly a stately monument of 
white marble erected to his memory, with a length- 
ened inscription, which Harris has preserved. As 
the monument, however, was suffering considerably 
from the weather, it was removed into the cathedral, 
where it has been placed at the south side of the 
west aisle ; while a mural plate in the churchyard 
designates the spot where his mortal remains were 
deposited. But his character is his best memorial. 
He was a divine of extraordinary learning and piety. 
He had applied himself to the study of mathematics and 
natural philosophy ; was deeply versed in the oriental 
tongues ; and withal, eminently skilled in both vocal 
and instrumental music ; comprehending the theory 
and principles of harmony scientifically, and displaying 
as a practitioner considerable taste and execution. 
Many valuable works in Golius's collection of orien- 
tal manuscripts were purchased by him, and pre- 
sented to the Bodleian Library. Besides his " Insti- 
tutions Logicae," usually called the Provost's Logic, 
which he published, while he presided over Trinity 
College, for the use of its students, he edited Philip 
de Trieu's " Manuductio ad Logicam," to which he 
added the original Greek text, and some notes on 
Gassendi's tract, " De Demonstratione," printed at 



298 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Oxford in 1678. He wrote also an Essay on Sounds, 
with Proposals for the Improvement of Acoustics, 
which was presented to the Royal Society in 1683, 
and printed in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 
156, and on which Guido Grandi, a philosopher of 
Cremona, has largely commented in his " Disquisitio 
Geometrica." He likewise published a Charge to 
the Clergy of the Diocese of Dublin. Though zeal- 
ously attached to the Church of England, and de- 
cidedly hostile to that of Rome, this prelate displayed 
a spirit of liberality towards dissenters. Mr. James 
Fleming, Presbyterian Minister of Lurgan, had been 
deputed in the year 1708 by the presbytery of Ar- 
magh to preach in Drogheda, where he experienced 
some persecution, both from the mayor of the town, 
and from Dean Cox. His successor, Mr. William 
Biggars, was imprisoned by these intolerant gentle- 
men, and confined for six weeks, Doctor Marsh's 
name and alleged certificate being used as authority 
for these harsh proceedings ; but the prelate, on hear- 
ing of the circumstance, resented the conduct of the 
dean and the mayor exceedingly, and declared " that 
such severity against his dissenting brethren, was 
both against his principles and his inclination."* 

WILLIAM KING. 

[Succ. 1702. Ob. 1729.] 

William King, Doctor of Divinity, was born at 
Antrim on the first of May, 1650, and was descended 



Presbyterian Loyalty, p. 512, &e. 



WILLIAM KING. 299 

from an ancient family of the house of Burras, in the 
north of Scotland, whence his father, James King, 
removed in the reign of King Charles the First, to 
avoid engaging in the solemn league and covenant 
at that time imposed under a species of excommuni- 
cation, and he thereupon settled in the north of Ire- 
land, where this his son was born, whom he lived to 
see promoted to the bishopric of Derry. In 1662 
the young William was sent to a Latin school at 
Dungannon, and on the 7th of April, 1666, was ad- 
mitted a sizer in Trinity College, Dublin. There 
he remarkably distinguished himself, and obtained a 
scholarship and native's place. In February, 1670, 
he took the degree of bachelor of arts, in 1675 that of 
master, and in this latter year received deacon's orders 
from the hands of Doctor Robert Mossom, Bishop of 
Derry. From the time of his admission into the 
College he contracted an intimate acquaintance with 
the famous Mr. Henry Dodwell, by whom he was in- 
structed in logic and history ; but, although they ever 
afterwards kept up a familiar and close correspon- 
dence, King's letters shew how much he differed 
from that gentleman in many points of divinity, and 
what pains he took to convince him of the evil ten- 
dency of some of his whimsical speculations. 

Upon a week's warning, at the provost's com- 
mand, he offered himself a candidate for a vacant 
fellowship in Trinity College, in which, though he 
did not succeed, being the junior of all, yet he ac- 
quitted himself with so much credit to his character, 
as strongly recommended him to the favour of John 



300 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Parker, Archbishop of Tuam, who, in 1674, ordained 
him a priest, in 1675 admitted him into his family in 
quality of chaplain, in 1676 collated him to the pre- 
bend and vicarage of Kilmainmore, the rectory and 
vicarage of Kilmainbeg, the vicarages of Cong, Ross, 
Moregaga, Killmolara, and Ballincalla, all in the dio- 
cese of Tuam, and county of Mayo. In October, 
1676, he was promoted by the same patron to the 
provostship of the cathedral church of that diocese, 
and to the rectories and vicarages of Killareran, Tem- 
pleduresmore, alias Knockmoy, Kilkerin, Ballymakelly, 
Aghiart, and the vicarage of Annaghdown, in the 
county of Galway. While he was chaplain in the family 
of Archbishop Parker, he applied himself closely to 
the acquisition of all useful learning, an inclination 
which his patron sedulously encouraged, having con- 
ceived a high opinion of his superior talents and 
excellent qualifications. His Grace of Tuam having 
been translated in 1678 to the see of Dublin, as be- 
fore mentioned, collated Mr. King on the 27th of 
October, 1679> to the chancellorship of St. Patrick's, 
to which the parish of St. Werburgh's is annexed, 
where he employed himself with much diligence in 
keeping his flock in the doctrine of his Church. 
He was involved, however, at this time in a contest 
with Dean Worth, he denying that dignitary's right 
of visiting independently of the chapter. King was, 
however, obliged to submit, to acknowledge his teme- 
rity in protesting against or refusing to appear at the 
dean's visitation, and to promise obedience in future. 
In 1686 he was engaged in a more serious con- 






WILLIAM KING. 301 

troversy with Peter Manby, Dean of Derry, who had 
become a Roman Catholic, and published " The Con- 
siderations which obliged him to embrace the Catho- 
lic religion. " King's reply to this pamphlet was 
entitled " An Answer to the Considerations which 
obliged Peter Manby, late Dean of Londonderry, 
(as he pretends) to embrace what he calls the Catholic 
religion." To this, there came forth a rejoinder, en- 
titled " A reformed Catechism in two dialogues con- 
cerning the English Reformation, collected for the 
most part word for word, out of Doctor Burnet, John 
Fox, and other Protestant historians, for the informa- 
tion of the people, in reply to Mr. William King's 
Answer to Dean Manby's Considerations, &c, by Peter 
Manby, Dean of Londonderry." King's reply ap- 
peared under the name of " A Vindication of the 
Answer to the Considerations, &c, being an answer to 
the first dialogue already printed of the Reformed 
Catechism," whereupon, the Dean published " A Let- 
ter to a Friend, shewing the vanity of his opinion, that 
every man's sense and reason are to guide him in 
matters of faith, " which produced King's last word, 
66 A Vindication of the Christian Religion and Refor- 
mation, against the attempts of a late Letter, pretend- 
ing to shew that all religions have a like plea, and that 
there can be no such sins as heresy and schism, if every 
man's sense and reason are to guide him in matters of 
faith." In 1688, King was constituted president of 
the chapter of St. Patrick's on the death of Dean 
Worth, and, in the January following, was elected 



302 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

dean by the chapter, " undoubted patrons of that 
dignity." 

On the accession of James the Second, after most 
of the Protestant clergy had fled, he continued to 
reside in Dublin, and considerably promoted the re- 
duction of the adherents of James the Second by his 
influence. When he saw the attempt made to abrogate 
the Act of Settlement, without reflecting that a more 
atrocious, unjust, and ungrateful affirmance of the 
usurpation of adventurers never passed any legis- 
lative assembly* he conceived himself impelled by his 
religious principles, to persuade the Protestants, as 
most affected thereby, to embrace the deliverance 
offered to them by the Prince of Orange, to acknow- 
ledge him their king, and submit to his government, 
and undoubtedly he was singularly instrumental in pro- 
moting the course of the revolution in this kingdom. 
In 1689 he took his degree of doctor of divinity, 
and in the July of that year was, together with Doc- 
tor Foy, and many other Protestant clergymen, im- 
prisoned in the Castle, immediately upon which, he 
appointed Mr. Henry Price his sub-dean, "and let me 
beseech you," he says in his letter of nomination, 
" do what you can to keep the Church in order ; 
and I desire the assistance of your prayers, &c." 
Leslie attributes this, his imprisonment, to his 
having corresponded and given intelligence to the 
Williamite party, and particularly to Marshal Schom- 
berg, and his having kept up a constant correspon- 
dence with Tolet and others in London. During his 
confinement he compiled the well-known work, "The 



WILLIAM KING. 303 

State of the Protestants of Ireland under King 
James's Government." He was, however, shortly- 
enlarged through the influence of Herbert, then 
appointed by King James lord high chancellor of 
England, who, while warmly attached to that mo- 
narch's interest, was a zealous Protestant ; and on all 
occasions, the chief patron and protector of the dis- 
tressed people of his own communion. 

As soon as he was released, Doctor King applied 
himself to the care of the diocese of Dublin, as before 
mentioned, which Archbishop Francis Marsh had 
deserted. In 1690 he was again confined, but the 
victory of the Boyne opened his prison door, and 
pointed the avenue for his spiritual promotion. In a 
few days after that engagement, when King William 
entered Dublin in triumph, Dean King preached the 
thanksgiving sermon in St. Patrick's ; and, on the 
9th of the following January, he was promoted to the 
bishopric of Derry, and received consecration at 
Christ Church, Dublin, from the hands of Arch- 
bishop Francis Marsh, assisted by the Bishops of 
Meath, Leighlin and Ferns, Kildare and Killaloe ; the 
king's metropolitan, Michael, Archbishop of Armagh, 
being then sick and unable to discharge the duty. 
After his consecration he immediately repaired to his 
diocese, which he found in all the wretchedness and 
misery induced by civil war ; the villages and plan- 
tations all destroyed ; the churches burned or dilapi- 
dated ; the clergy withdrawn ; and the parishes not 
able to supply a resident ministry, occasioned by the 
poverty of the people, and the want of tillage and 



304 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

cattle. The bishop in a short time obliged the 
clergy to reside, or resign, or appoint and maintain 
sufficient curates ; and out of his own revenues he 
supported many vicars, until the improvements of 
the respective parishes brought them in a sufficient 
and decent maintenance. When he was settled in 
his bishopric, he zealously laboured, and even pub- 
lished a treatise, to persuade the dissenting Protestants 
of his diocese, who were much increased by colonies 
from Scotland, to conform to the Established Church ; 
and this work of his ministry was attended with con- 
siderable success. In 1692 he took a journey to 
England, to confer with the London Society, who 
were proprietors of a good part of the county of 
Derry, and between whom and his predecessor, 
Bishop Hopkins, there had been warm disputes about 
some lands and the fishery of the Bann. Bishop 
King proposed very equitable terms for an accom- 
modation, but they were rejected, and a law suit 
commenced, which, in its consequence, gave rise to a 
decree in the House of Lords of England, that the 
bishop's appeal to the House of Lords of Ireland 
from the decree or orders of the chancery there, was 
coram non judice, and that all the proceedings 
therein were null and void, and that the Chancery of 
Ireland ought to proceed in the said cause as if no 
such appeal had been made to the House of Lords 
there. His acts, however, in immediate reference 
to the see of Derry, are not properly referrible to this 
work. 

In 1694 he published "A discourse concerning 



WILLIAM KING. 305 

the inventions of men in the worship of God," which 
having been answered by Mr. Joseph Boyse, a dissent- 
ing minister, and by Robert Craghead, minister of 
the gospel in Deny, induced the bishop to write two 
" Admonitions to the Dissenting Inhabitants of the 
diocese of Derry," after which Mr. Boyse wrote a 
Vindication of his Remarks. In 1702, on the pro- 
motion of Doctor Narcissus Marsh to the primacy, 
Bishop King was elected, by both chapters of Dublin, 
administrator of the spiritualities of that see, to the 
archbishopric of which he was fully translated on 
the 11th of March in the same year. He has been 
accused of having sought the passing of the patent 
of this promotion in an unusual form, with a clause 
that he should be enthroned either by the dean of 
Christ Church or St. Patrick's, which, it was alleged, 
was never in any patent before, and he actually held 
visitations in St. Patrick's without enthronization, 
while he wholly declined coming to prayers to Christ 
Church until he should be enthroned there, and 
summoned the prebendaries of Christ Church to his 
visitations in St. Patrick's, which three of the ablest 
lawyers of the time declared to be illegal. These 
and other matters of difference between him and his 
clergy cannot be now of interest, but may be found 
very fully detailed in the Church history of the pe- 
riod. On taking possession of this see he applied 
himself with his usual assiduity to the founding of 
new churches in several parts of the diocese, and by 
the application of the impropriate forfeited tithes, 
pursuant to the English act 1 1 Will. III., by his own 

x 



300 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

contribution and the donations of others, he procured 
nineteen new churches to be erected in places, where 
no divine service had been performed since the period 
of the Reformation, causing also seven others to be 
rebuilt, and fourteen to be repaired. To supply 
these new churches with pastors, as the contiguous 
parishes became vacant, which consisted often of 
many unions, he divided them, and there settled a 
resident clergy, and, observing that most of these 
parishes were not accommodated with glebe land for 
the comfortable support of the incumbents, he ap- 
portioned to each, twenty acres out of the see land, 
pursuant to the enabling statute, 2 Anne, sess. 1, 
c. 10, as glebes at a very moderate reserved rent, so 
that most of the vicarages of his diocese were sup- 
plied with convenient land. When he likewise found 
that the income of the resident clergymen was 
scarcely sufficient for a decent maintenance, in con- 
sequence of the many divisions made of unions which 
formerly made these parishes very considerable, to 
remedy this in some measure, he annexed the pre- 
bends of St. Patrick's, as they became vacant, to the 
vicarages which were before separate and in distinct 
persons. He likewise, as appears from a letter of 
his in 1727? caused eleven alms houses to be built on 
glebes, several of which were his own gift. Dean 
Swift mentions a peculiar mode by which he encour- 
aged his clergy to residence; " when a lease had run 
out seven years or more, he stipulated with the tenant 
to resign twenty or thirty acres to the minister of the 
parish where it lay convenient, without lessening his 



WILLIAM KING. 307 

former rent and with no great abatement in the fine, 
and this he did in the parts near Dublin, where land 
is at the highest rates, leaving a small chiefry for the 
minister to pay, hardly a sixth part of the value." 
In this, the first year of his promotion, he published 
his well known work " de Origine Mali," which Mr. 
Bayle and Mr. Leibnitz examined and censured. He 
endeavours therein to shew how all the kinds of evil, 
with which the world abounds, are consistent with the 
goodness of God, and maybe accounted for without the 
supposition of an evil principle ; Doctor Whateley, 
the present Archbishop, has published a comment on 
it, in which he styles King's work " a presumptuous 
speculation." In 1703, Archbishop King having pre- 
viously purchased in his natural capacity, the lands 
of Seatown, Newtown, &c, 524a. which had be- 
longed to this see, relinquished any personal bene- 
fit therefrom, and caused patents thereof to be passed 
to himself and his successors, Archbishops of Dublin, in 
augmentation of their revenues ; which patents were 
confirmed by an English act of the fifth year of the 
reign of Qeen Anne. In the Irish parliament of 1703 
were passed, the act for quieting the Protestant Hierar- 
chy in their possessions, discharged to a certain extent of 
ancient incumbrances ; the act authorizing the ex- 
change of glebes, with approbation of the bishop and 
patron ; and the act for naturalizing Protestant 
strangers. In the same session, when the question 
was put to take into consideration the heads of a bill 
sent up by the commons, making it high treason, by 
word or writing to impeach the succession of the 

x2 



SOS ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

crown as then limited, and when said question was 
negatived, Archbishop King was one of the three 
peers who protested against that negative. He was 
also one of the three who protested against deferring 
the consideration of the Earl of Meath's memorable 
petition, complaining of the appellate jurisdiction 
affected to be exercised by the House of Lords of 
England over that of Ireland. But above all, it re- 
dounds to the high-minded and independent spirit of 
this prelate, that when at the same time the British 
senate had enacted, that the kingdom of Ireland was 
subordinate to that of Great Britain, and might be 
bound by laws made in England without its con- 
currence, this prelate was one of those who supported 
the spirited assertion of Irish independence that ap- 
pears on the Lords' Journals of that period. A cle- 
rical convocation was also held in this year, principally 
by Archbishop King's instrumentality. 

In 1704 he preached the thanksgiving sermon in 
Christ Church, before the lords justices, for the vic- 
tory of Hochstet, having prevented the dean of that 
cathedral from so doing; and in 1705 he preached 
before the queen in St. James's chapel. About the 
year 1706 he purchased a large portion of impro- 
priate tithes in the county of Kildare, which he vested 
in trustees for augmenting small cures in his diocese, 
upon the especial condition, that the incumbents 
should constantly reside, and that the income of their 
parishes should not exceed £100 per annum ; he also 
bought up £49 per annum, part of the estate of Sir 
John Eccles, and settled it for the support of a 



WILLIAM KING. 309 

lecturer in St. George's chapel, Dublin ; he likewise 
purchased the lay rectories of Cruagh in the county 
of Dublin, and those of Ballintemple and Newcastle 
in the county of Wicklow, and collated respective in- 
cumbents thereto, divesting himself of the profits of 
said benefices, and retaining only the patronage. In 
the same year he preached before the lord mayor 
and magistrates of Dublin, on the mischief of delay- 
ing sentence against an evil work, taking for his 
text Eccles. c. viii. v. 11. This discourse has been 
printed. 

In 1708 this prelate was of the privy council that 
issued a proclamation to prohibit the exportation of 
corn, grain, and meal from Ireland, on account of 
the high prices at which they were sold, occasioned, 
partly by the badness of the previous harvest, but yet 
more by several merchants exporting such quantities 
abroad, " that the poorer sort of inhabitants of this 
kingdom would be in danger of perishing, unless 
some speedy stop be put to the exportation thereof." 
In the same year he and the other Irish prelates em- 
ployed Dean Swift, who had been an active member 
of the Irish convocation in the preceding year, to so- 
licit the remission of the first fruits. He made his 
application to Lord Godolphin, with the encourage- 
ment of Lord Sunderland, Lord Somers, Mr. South- 
well, and other leading members among the ministry, 
but it was ineffectual ; as the grant of the first fruits 
and tenths in England had not been attended with the 
expected consequences, of reconciling the clergy to 
the ministers by whom the favour was bestowed, the 



310 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

lord treasurer showed little inclination to repeat the 
experiment ; yet he intimated to Swift, that the grant 
might be obtained on condition the Irish clergy were 
disposed to make such acknowledgments " as they 
ought ;" or, as he reluctantly explained the phrase, 
better acknowledgments than had been made by the 
churchmen of England. Swift's inference was, that 
Godolphin suspected the clergy to be Tories, in the 
then received sense, that is, hostile to the Revolu- 
tion and settlement of the crown ; a suspicion which 
rendered his commission desperate ; and, though he 
was afterwards raised to better hopes by Lord Pem- 
broke, yet his first opinion proved just, and nothing 
was done in the matter until the administration of 
Lord Harley. In 1709 Archbishop King preached 
a sermon before Lord Wharton and the House of 
Lords in Christ Church, on divine predestination 
and foreknowledge as consistent with the freedom of 
man's will, taking as his text Rom. viii. v. 29? 30. 
Doctor John Edward commented on this effusion, as 
tending to lessen the divine attributes and perfec- 
tions ; but Doctor Copleston has highly commended 
it, in the notes to his " Inquiry concerning Predesti- 
nation ;" and the present Archbishop of Dublin, 
Doctor Whateley, in a re-print of the sermon with 
comments, says, " It is calculated to afford useful 
hints even to the most learned divine, to furnish the 
younger student with principles, which will form the 
best basis on which to build his whole system of theo- 
logy ; and to supply even the unlearned reader with 
the most valuable instruction, suited to a moderate ca- 



WILLIAM KING. 311 

pacity, on the most important points." In the parlia- 
ment of the same year, Archbishop King was one of 
the seven prelates, who, much to their credit, pro- 
tested against the bill for the further growth of Po- 
pery, as will be more particularly mentioned in the 
memoir of the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Doctor 
Byrne. 

In 171 1 5 Doctor King, in a letter to Dean Swift s 
makes the following interesting allusion to the state 
of the times : " The preliminaries of our parliament 
are now over; that is to say, addresses, &c; and I 
find the usual funds will be granted, I think, una- 
nimously for two years from Christmas next, which 
is all the Duke of Ormonde desires ; I do not see 
much more will be done ; you will observe several 
reflections are in the addresses on the late manage- 
ment here, in which the Earl of Anglesey and I dif- 
fered. If we could impeach, as you can in Great 
Britain, and bring the malefactors to account, I 
should be for it with all my endeavour ; but to show 
our ill-will, when we can do no more, seems to be no 
good policy in a dependent people, and that can have 
no other effect than to provoke revenge, without the 
prospect of redress, of which we have too fatal in- 
stances. I reckon that every chief governor, who is 
sent here, comes with a design to serve first those who 
sent him, and that our good only must be so far con- 
sidered as it is subservient to the main design. The 
only difference between governors as to us is to have a 
good-natured man, that has some interest in our 
prosperity, and will not oppress us unnecessarily, and 



312 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

such is his Grace ; but I doubt, whether even that 
will not be an objection against him on your side of 
the water; for I have found that those governors, that 
gained most on the liberties of the kingdom, are 
reckoned the best, and therefore it concerns us to be 
on our guard against all governors, and to provoke as 
little as we can. For he that cannot revenge himself 
acts the wise part, when he dissembles and passes 
over injuries. In my opinion, the best that has hap- 
pened to us is, that the parliament grants the funds 
for two years, for by these means we shall have one 
summer to ourselves to do our Church and country 
business. I have not been able to visit my diocese 
ecclesiastim, as I used to do, the last three years for 

want of such a recess Our letter is come over 

for the remittal of the twentieth parts, and granting the 
first fruits for buying impropriations and purchasing 
glebes, which will be a great ease to the clergy, and a 
benefit to the Church. We want glebes more than the 
impropriations, and I am for buying them first where 
wanting, for without them residence is impossible ; 
and besides, I look upon it as a security to tithes, 
that the laity have a share in them ; and, therefore, I 
am not for purchasing them but where they are abso- 
lutely necessary. We shall, I believe, have some 
considerations of methods to convert the natives ; but 
I do not find that it is desired by all that they should 
be converted. There is a party among us that have 
little sense of religion, and heartily hate the Church ; 
these would have the natives made Protestants, but 
such as themselves are deadly afraid they should 



WILLIAM KING. 313 

come into the Church, because, say they, this would 
strengthen the Church too much. Others would 
have them come in, but can't approve of the methods 
proposed, which are to preach to them in their own 
language, and to have the service in Irish, as our own, 
canons require ; so that between them I am afraid 
that little will be done." 

In 1713 the House of Lords moved an address 
to the Queen in favour of the Lord Chancellor, Sir 
Constantine Phipps, wherein they expressed them- 
selves as "obliged in justice to that excellent minister 
in all humility to represent unto your Majesty, that 
we do not find but that in the several eminent sta- 
tions, in which he hath served your Majesty since his 
coming into this country, he hath acquitted himself 
with honour and integrity, as becomes a discerning 
and vigilant governor, an equal administrator of jus- 
tice, a true lover of the Church as by law established, 
and a zealous assertor of the prerogative, in opposi- 
tion to a factious spirit which hath too much prevailed 
in this nation."* When this address was voted, Arch- 
bishop King, who was throughout opposed to the Chan- 
cellor's liberal politics, headed the list of seven peers 
who protested against it. In July of the same year he 
obtained judgment from the English House of Lords 
in a cause long pending between him and Doctor Theo- 
philus Harrison, then prebendary of the church of 
St. John in Dublin, and in the November following 
he preached the funeral sermon of Archbishop Marsh, 

* Lords' Journals, vol. ii. p. 438. 




314 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

taking for his text Psalm 112, v. 6. In May, 3 714, 
he, Sir Constantine Phipps, and ethers were of the 
privy council, who issued the proclamation for pre- 
venting the enlisting of recruits in aid of the Pre- 
tender, and for the discovery of such persons as had 
theretofore promoted such enlisting. On the ac- 
cession of George the First, the lords of the regency 
of England, having removed the Primate and Sir 
Constantine Phipps, then Lord Chancellor, from the 
government of Ireland, appointed as Lords Justices 
the Earl of Kildare and this prelate, who soon after- 
wards, on " some profligate persons having offered 
great indignities to the memory of King William the 
Third, by taking out and breaking the truncheon in 
his statue erected in College-green," did by proclama- 
tion declare " all concerned in that barbarous fact guilty 
of the greatest insolence, baseness, and ingratitude, 
and offered large rewards for their apprehension." 
In 1715 the act was passed empowering the Lord 
Lieutenant and Council to unite or divide parishes, 
to appropriate benefices with cure to dignities with- 
out cure, and to direct the erection of new churches, 
the same statute prescribing the modes of presenta- 
tion thereto, and of endowing or augmenting the 
endowments of vicarages. By this act also a tract of 
land, called the burgery of Cloyne, which had been 
annexed to the see of Dublin, w T as transferred to that 
of Cloyne, charged, however, with a fee-farm rent of 
£26 per annum to Archbishop King and his succes- 
sors for ever. In this session was likewise passed an 
act, which this prelate had long laboured to obtain, con- 



WILLIAM KING. 315 

firming the grants made by Queen Anne of the first 
fruits and twentieth parts, and also allowing those 
chargeable therewith four years for their payment. 
A letter of Doctor King to Dean Swift, from Suf- 
folk-street, London, dated 22nd of November, 171G, 
evinces the amicable relations he wished to preserve 
with his clergy. " I am glad the business of St. 
Nicholas is over any way, my inclination was Mr. 
Wall, that I might have joined the vicarage of Cas- 
tleknock to the prebend of Mullaghiddart, which 
would have made a good provision for one man, 
served the cures better, and yielded more then to the 
incumbent, than it can do now when in different 
hands ; but I could not compass it without using 
more power over my clergy than I am willing to exert. 
But as I am thankful to you for your condescension 
in that affair, so I will expect that those with whom 
you have complied should shew their sense of it, by 
a mutual return of the like compliance when there 
shall be occasion ; such reciprocal kind offices are 
the ground of mutual confidence and friendship, and 
the fuel that keeps them alive, and I think nothing 
can contribute more to our common ease and the 
public good, than maintaining these between you and 
me and with the clergy." 

About the commencement of the vear 1717? the 
celebrated Lord Wharton having come into this 
country, and been honoured with a seat in the House 
of Lords by the general consent of the peers, although 
he was then only eighteen years of age, one of his 
earliest political displays was levelled against this pre- 



316 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

late, for some advice which it was alleged he had given 
to the late king ; and, such was the address of the 
young orator on this occasion, that he persuaded the 
house to commit the archbishop to prison in the Cas- 
tle of Dublin, where he remained until the same 
eccentric nobleman moved that his Grace might be 
brought to the bar of the house, acknowledge his pre- 
sumption, and ask pardon upon his knees ; terms 
with which the archbishop was actually forced to 
comply. In the same year he was again, however, 
one of the Lords Justices. A letter of his in the 
following year evinces, with what unwearied zeal he 
laboured to induce private assistance of pecuniary 
aids for ecclesiastical purposes. The epistle alluded to 
was written by him in reply to one from Mr. Secre- 
tary Southwell, wherein the latter had complained of 
gouty ankles. The archbishop, half seriously, half 
jocularly, tells him he wants money to build three or 
four churches, and if he would throw away a proper 
sum for that purpose, it might lighten the load of his 
riches, which they allege is very ill for the gout, and 
apt to strain his ankles : "lam," he adds, "now 
going into my forty -third gouty year, and, if I had 
not taken care to keep myself light that way, I had 
certainly been a cripple long ago. You see, then, 
your remedy ; pray try it : a little assignment of a 
year's salary, though it may not cure your ankles, will 
certainly ease a toe." And in a subsequent letter he 
says more seriously and feelingly to the same person, 
" Consider you have received out of Ireland at least 
sixty thousand pounds since the Revolution, which 






WILLIAM KING. 317 

is more that the tenth part of all the current coin of 
Ireland ; and sure there ought to be some footstep 
of charitable work done to a kingdom, out of which 
you have drained so vast sums." Sundry other let- 
ters of this prelate, yet extant, are replete with abuses 
of the institutions of Ireland, and the beggary of the 
people by the mismanagement of its governors at this 
period. In this latter year (1718) Archbishop King 
held a synod or visitation in St. Patrick's Church, at 
which, in order to the due execution of the act for 
the union and division of parishes, it was directed 
that the clergy of this diocese should return lists of 
the townlands in their several parishes, and their re- 
spective distance from a church; the names of the 
several patrons of their parishes ; what parishes or 
tithes were in lay hands, or appropriated to ecclesias- 
tical corporations ; the amount of forfeited tithes, 
vicarial endowments, and curates' stipends ; the ex- 
tent of glebes, or what lands might be conveniently 
obtained for such ; what unions or divisions might be 
eligible ; the state of the churches ; the comparative 
population of conformists, dissenters, and papists in 
the city of Dublin ; the yearly value of each parish, 
&c. &c. 

In 1719 the act was passed for the better main- 
tenance of curates, directing the ordinary to appoint 
stipends to be paid to them by the rectors or vicars 9 
and to enforce payment thereof by sequestration. In 
the same session Archbishop King was one of sixteen 
peers, (eight being spiritual,) who protested against 
the act for exempting the Protestant dissenters of 



318 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Ireland from certain penalties to which they were 
then subject. He also protested against the bill 
for better securing the rights of advowson and pre- 
sentation to ecclesiastical benefices. In the same 
year he published " A Discourse concerning the Con- 
secration of Churches, shewing what is meant by dedi- 
cating them, with the grounds of that office." At 
this period of his life, Dean Swift thus alludes to 
him in his " Proposal for the universal Use of Irish 
Manufacture, &c." : " I think it needless," he says, 
in reference to his project, "to exhort the clergy to 
follow this good example, because in a little time 
those among them, who are so unfortunate as to have 
had their birth and education in this country, will 
think themselves abundantly happy when they can 
afford Irish crape and an Athlone hat ; and as to the 
others, I shall not presume to direct them. I have, 
indeed, seen the present archbishop of Dublin clad 
from head to foot in our own manufacture ; and yet, 
under the rose be it spoken, his Grace deserves as 
good a gown as if he had not been born among us." 
Doctor King was vehemently opposed to the 
South Sea scheme, in reference to which, he wrote to 
Archbishop Wake in February, 17*20 : " As to your 
South Sea affair, I told the fate of it last April, when 
it was at three hundred for one hundred, and the 
event has in every particular answered my prediction, 
which I set down in a few queries, which I shewed 
to my friends, but would not suffer them to be print- 
ed, because I understood that whoever said anything 
against the South Sea was looked on as disaffected to 



WILLIAM KING. 319 

the government and ministry, which is an accusation 
I would by no means lie under. I find both houses 
are pretty smart on the directors, but I hear nothing 
said concerning those whose office it was to prevent 
the ruin of the nation. If they did see that, and suf- 
fered it when it was so easy to prevent it, it is no 
hard matter to determine what they deserve : if they 
did not see it, they were the only blind set of men in 
the kingdom, and for the future ought never to be 
trusted in any public business, and beside that, chas- 
tised for meddling in the matters of which they were 
absolutely incapable, for surely such ought not to go 
unpunished ; but it is now no new thing to hang 
little rogues and let the great escape."* In another 
letter, dated in the following month, he draws a me-* 
lancholy picture of the ruin induced in Dublin, by 
the bursting of that bubble, and the prevalence of 
absenteeism. 

In 1721 this prelate granted to the Reverend 
Thomas Fetherston forty acres of land adjoining the 
river Annamoe, in the county of Wicklow, an endow- 
ment which was confirmed by Dean Swift ; and about 
the same time he gave £500 to the Blue Coat Hos- 
pital in Dublin. In that year he was, for the fourth 
time, constituted one of the Lords Justices, a trust 
which he fulfilled at all times with zealous attachment 
to the house of Hanover and the succession of the 
crown in that familv. Yet it is not a little remark- 
able, that on the occasion of the parliament of that 

* Autogr. in Brit. Museum. 



320 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

year, when the lords voted an address to his majesty, 
" begging leave to return unfeigned thanks for his 
gracious acceptance of their expressions of duty and 
loyalty in former sessions of parliament," Arch- 
bishop King formally protested against these words, 
because, as he signifies, " I have always been against 
addresses of mere compliments between the crown 
and the parliament, believing they may be of ill 
consequence." It was at this session the statute was 
enacted, authorizing the increasing of glebes, with a 
special clause, empowering this prelate by deed en- 
rolled to grant lands, whereof he was seised in his 
own right to resident curates and their successors. 
An act was likewise passed to encourage the resi- 
dence of the clergy having cure of souls, and to 
enable bishops to grant two acres for Protestant 
schools in the several parishes. In 1723 the act 
2 Geo. I. c. 14, for the real union and division of 
parishes, was further confirmed by parliament ; and 
the act 2 Geo. I. c. 15, relative to the payment of 
the first fruits, was amended. 

In April, 1724, Doctor King obtained a final 
judgment from the English House of Lords, against 
the Dean of Christ Church, who had successively 
appealed from the Court of Common Pleas to that of 
King's Bench in Ireland, and thence to the Court 
of King's Bench in England. In July of the same 
year, Doctor Marmaduke Coghill, writing to the 
Honourable Edward Southwell, while he announces 
the death of the primate, intimates "the vishes of 
the kingdom generally, that the Archbishop of Dub- 



WILLIAM KING. 321 

lin should succeed him." Doctor Boulter, however, 
was preferred to the primacy, which may account for 
the " open enmity, never to be reconciled," that the 
same Doctor Coghill in the following year states as 
existing between these prelates. The reason as- 
signed for not giving the preferment to Doctor 
King yet more offended him, as that he was too far 
advanced in years to be removed, and the only op- 
portunity that offered for manifesting his resent- 
ment, he embraced, when, receiving the primate at 
his own house and in his dining parlour, he re- 
mained in his chair without rising, and emphatically 
apologized in the words, " my Lord, I am certain your 
Grace will forgive me, because you know I am too 
old to rise." 

A letter of this prelate in the same year (1724) 
to the before mentioned Mr. Southwell, as spiritedly 
rebukes that personage in reference to the coinage of 
Wood's halfpence. " The people here are of opinion 
that you owed so much to your country, as to have 
ventured a little of your interest to have put this 
matter in a fair light, but they are persuaded that 
the design was all by artifice and cunning to pass 
these halfpence upon us, and they take it very ill that 
you have made yourself a tool in it." Swift, who in 
some other matters was much opposed to his Grace, 
warmly commends his opposition to Wood's coinage 
and his general character, particularly in the verses : 

I sing not of the Draper's praise, nor yet of William Wood, 
But I sing of a famous Lord, who seeks his country's good ; 

Y 



322 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Lord William's Grace of Dublin town 'tis he that first appears, 

Whose wisdom and whose piety do far exceed his years ; 

In every council and debate he stands for what is right, 

And still the truth he will maintain whate'er he loses by't ; 

And though some think him in the wrong, yet still there comes a 

season, 
When every one turns round about and owns his Grace had reason ; 
His firmness to the public good, as one that knows it swore, 
Has lost his Grace for ten years past ten thousand pounds and 

more; 
Then come the poor and strip him so, they leave him not a cross, 
For he regards ten thousand pounds no more than Woods's dross. 
kc, &c. &c. 

About the same time Doctor King elicited similar 
approbation from the dean, by directing the clergy 
and churchwardens of the city of Dublin to appoint 
badges of brass, copper, or pewter to be worn by the 
poor of the several parishes, the badges to be marked 
with the initial letters of the name of each church, 
and numbered 1, 2, 3, &c, to be well sewed and 
fastened on the right or left shoulder of the outward 
garment of each of the said poor ; and he directed 
that none should go out of their own parish to beg, 
whereof the beadles were to take care. The project, 
however, proved ineffectual by the fraud, perverse- 
ness, or pride of its objects, who refused to receive 
the badges, or secreted them about their persons. In 
1 725 the acts were passed for the more effectual en- 
couragement of free schools and the improvement of 
Church lands. 

In and previous to the year 1726, the jealousy, 
which existed between Doctor King and the Primate 



WILLIAM KING. 323 

of Armagh, broke out in a controversy, wherein 
Boulter claimed an exclusive power, by grant from 
the crown to his see, of licensing marriages at unca- 
nonical hours and places. The difference was most 
angrily conducted on the part of the Primate, who, 
as the leader of what was most unhappily termed the 
English interest, was diametrically opposed in politics 
to Doctor King. The declining health of the latter 
elicited a letter from his opponent, painfully illus- 
trating the state in which he regarded his brother 
prelate. It is dated the 26th of January, 1726, and 
addressed to the Duke of Newcastle. " As his Grace 
of Dublin has been pretty much out of order, though 
I cannot hear for certain that he is in any great dan- 
ger, several letters may go from hence representing 
him as dying ; that such accounts may not occasion 
any hasty measures being taken, I must beg leave to 
suggest, that the archbishopric is a place of very great 
importance, and a good agreement betwixt the pri- 
mate and the archbishop is of great consequence to 
the English interest here : I would therefore humbly 
entreat, that no steps may be taken about appointing 
his successor upon any rumours of his death, till my 
representations on that subject are considered, which 
I shall not fail to be speedy in sending, whenever it 
pleases God to remove his Grace."* 

In 1726 he granted to Robert Dougat, Vicar of 
St. Peter's, and to his successors for ever, a piece of 
ground adjoining the glebe of St. Kevin's, containing 



* Boulter's Letters, vol. i-. p. 102. 

Y 2 



324 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

3r, Gp., at 2s. 6d. annual rent, the grant being meant 
as an augmentation ; and, about the same time, en- 
joined not only the incumbents, but also the curates 
of the parishes within his diocese, to preach four ser- 
mons in each year on controversial subjects.* On 
the accession of George the Second in the following 
year, many changes were made in civil and mili- 
tary employments, and more designed, when, several 
gentlemen having been removed on suspicion of their 
disloyalty, his Grace, who knew that some of them 
were well affected to the government, and their cha- 
racters misrepresented to make room for the promotion 
of others, wrote to the Secretaries of State in their 
favour, asserting their fidelity to the king and capacity 
to serve him in their offices ; and his interposition had 
in some instances the desired effect. At the same 
period, when Primate Boulter instituted a subscrip- 
tion for the relief of the Protestants of Lithuania, 
Archbishop King, however averse to "popery," yet 
sensible of the distress and poverty that surrounded 
him in Ireland, forbade all collection for foreigners 
within his province. In this year an act was passed, 
authorizing the recovery of tithes of small value be- 
fore magistrates ; another, encouraging the residence 
of the clergy and the granting of glebes ; a third, 
enabling prelates and other ecclesiastical persons and 
corporations, to grant their rights of patronage in small 
livings to such persons as would augment the same ; 
a fourth, for the better maintenance of curates ; and 



Archbishop Cradock's Primary Charge. 



WILLIAM KING. 325 

a fifth, for better securing the rights of advowsons 
and regulating proceedings by quare impedit. In 
1728, having previously considered that the mensal 
tithes of his see were of little value to the arch- 
bishops, as having been usually let out on leases, 
producing a total of only about £49 per annum, and 
that yet, being rectorial, they would be of great mo- 
ment to the vicars of the parishes where they lay ; 
he therefore so appropriated them, as to augment 
the following vicarages to the great advantage of 
their respective incumbents ; the vicarage of Inch and 
Kilgorman, in the barony of Gorey, county of Wex- 
ford ; the vicarage of Arklow, with the tithes of 
Kilbride, Templemichael, and Kilmacow ; the vicar- 
age of Bray, with the tithes of Connaught, Fassaroe 
and Ballyman ; the vicarage of Derrylossory and Glen- 
dalough, with the rectorial tithes of the same, &c ; 
while, in lieu thereof, he purchased for the see about 
thirteen acres of land, divided into closes and gar- 
dens, on the north side of Dolphin's Barns, worth at 
that time £60 8s. annually, and obtained an act of 
council to annex same to the see in perpetuity. He 
further expended the sum of £3000 in repairing and 
adorning the episcopal palace at St. Sepulchre's, 
which was in a ruinous condition, and he also erected 
a court house for its manor at his own charge, to 
which he joined a prison for the confinement of 
debtors. 

In May, 1729? he died at the advanced age of 
eighty years, in the palace which he had so re-edified, 
and was buried on the north side of the churchyard 



326 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

of Donnybrook, as he had directed in his life-time. 
By his will, bearing date the 6th of May, 1 726, he 
devised to the Archbishop of Tuam, and the Bishop 
of Clogher, £400 towards purchasing glebes for such 
one or more churches in this diocese, as should seem 
to them and his executor in most need thereof, and, 
having in his life-time given £500 to the College of 
Dublin, towards founding a divinity lecturership, for 
the benefit of such bachelors of the said house as 
elected the sacred ministry, to the intent of better 
qualifying them for holy orders, he devised £500 
more to his nephew the Reverend Robert Dougat, 
in trust to purchase a further maintenance and en- 
dowment for the said lecturership. He also left 
£150 to the poor of the city of Dublin, and, having 
purchased the library of his predecessor in Deny, 
Doctor Hopkins, he bequeathed it to Doctor Ni- 
cholson, then Bishop of Deny and his successors, in 
trust for the perpetual use of the gentlemen and 
clergy of that diocese. 

Harris thus gives his character : " He appears, 
in the tendency of his actions and endeavours, to 
have had the advancement of religion, virtue and 
learning entirely at heart, and may deservedly be 
enrolled amongst the greatest, the most universally 
accomplished and learned prelates of the age. His 
capacity and spirit to govern the Church were visible 
in his avowed enmity to pluralities and non-residence ; 
^ in his strict and regular visitations, annual, triennial, 
and parochial ; in his constant duty of confirmation 
and preaching ; and in the many excellent admoni- 



WILLIAM KING. 327 

tions and charges he gave his clergy upon those occa- 
sions ; in his pastoral care and diligence in admitting 
none into the sacred ministry but persons well quali- 
fied for their learning and good morals, who were 
graduates regularly educated in the Universities of 
England or Dublin, and who were before their ordi- 
nations publicly examined in the necessary points of 
divinity by him, his archdeacon, and some of his 
chapter. His hospitality was suitable to the dignity 
of his station and character ; and the whole course of 
his conversation innocent, cheerful, and improving, 
for he lived in the constant practice of every Chris- 
tian virtue and grace, that could adorn a public or 
private life." Swift characterizes him, in no less lau- 
datory terms, as having ever been " a loyal subject 
to the queen, entirely for the succession in the Pro- 
testant line, and for ever excluding the Pretender ; 
and though a firm friend to the Church, yet with in- 
dulgence towards Dissenters, as appears from his 
conduct at Derry, where he was settled for many 
years among the most virulent of the sect, yet, upon 
his removal to Dublin, they parted from him with 
tears in their eyes, and universal acknowledgments 
of his wisdom and goodness. For the rest, it must 
be owned, he does not busy himself by entering deep 
into any party, but rather spends his time in acts of 
hospitality and charity, in building of churches, re- 
pairing his palace ; in introducing and preferring 
the worthiest persons he can find, without other re- 
gards ; in short, in the practice of all virtues that 
can become a public or private life. This, and more. 



328 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

if possible, is due to so excellent a person, who may 
be justly reckoned among the greatest and most 
learned prelates of this age." The latter eulogy is 
the more creditable to both parties, as, notwithstand- 
ing all the esteem and respect those persons enter- 
tained for each other's qualifications, they were, never- 
theless, embroiled in perpetual quarrels on points of 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. A letter of the Dean to 
the Archbishop, in May, 1727> in reference to those 
disputes, is peculiarly sturdy and ungracious : — 
" My Lord, — I understand, by some letters just come 
to my hands, that at your Grace's visitation of the 
dean and chapter of St. Patrick's, a proxy was insist- 
ed on from the dean ; the visitation adjourned, and a 
rule entered that a proxy be exhibited within a month. 
If your Grace can find in any of your old records 
or of ours, that a proxy was ever demanded for a 
dean of St. Patrick's, you will have some reason to 
insist upon it ; but, as it is a thing wholly new and 
unheard of, let the consequences be what they will, I 
shall never comply with it. I take my chapter to be 
my proxy, if I want any ; it is only through them 
that you visit me ; and my sub-dean is to answer for 
me. I am neither civilian nor canonist ; your Grace 
may, probably, be both, with the addition of a dex- 
terous deputy. My proceeding shall be only upon a 
maxim, never to yield to an oppression to justify 
which no precedent can be produced. I see very 
well how personal all this proceeding is ; and how, 
from the very moment of the queen's death, your 
Grace has thought fit to take every opportunity of 



WILLIAM KING. 329 

giving me all sorts of uneasiness, without ever giving 
me, in my whole life, one single mark of your favour 
beyond common civilities ; and, if it were not below a 
man of spirit to make complaints, I could date them 
from six and twenty years past. This has something 
in it the more extraordinary, because, during some 
years, when I was thought to have credit with those 
in power, I employed it to the utmost for your ser- 
vice with great success, where it could be most useful, 
against many violent enemies you then had, however 
unjustly ; by which I got more ill will than by any 
other action in my life : I mean from my friends ;" 
&c. &c. &c. 

Doctor King's literary productions have been 
enumerated in the course of the memoir ; the chief of 
these, the State of the Protestants in Ireland, Burnet 
terms " a full and faithful account ;" and, in a letter 
to Sir Robert Southwell, reverting to its political 
tendency, describes it as " not only the best book that 
had been written for the service of the government, 
but, without any figure, it is worth all the rest put 
together, and will do more than all our scribbling for 
settling the minds of the nation." At this distance 
of time and test of its experience, the impartial critic 
will say, that the settling the minds of the nation was 
as little the object as it was the result; the work per- 
haps, more than any other, contributed to envenom 
the wounds which religious dissensions would not 
permit to close. Mr. Charles Leslie, by whom it 
was attacked, asserts that "there is not one single 
fact he has inquired into, but he found it false in 



330 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

whole or in part aggravated or misrepresented, so as 
to alter the face of the whole story, and give it per- 
fectly another air and turn, insomuch that, though 
many things he says were true, yet he has hardly 
spoke a true word that is told truly and nakedly 
without a warp." There is yet another line of view 
in which this work must offend every man who enter- 
tains sound principles of law and loyalty, for who, that 
can endure its perusal, will approve of an ecclesiastic 
advancing such principles, as that a king who designs 
to destroy a people abdicates the government ; that no 
oath of allegiance obliges any subject to assist his 
prince in an ill cause ; that the king and the people 
have a mutual power of dispensing with the laws, &c, 
&c, &c. 

JOHN HOADLY. 
[Succ. 1729. Resign. 1742.] 

John Hoadly, the successor of Archbishop King, 
was born at Tottenham on the 27th of September, 
1678, the youngest son of the Rev. Samuel Hoadly, 
and brother to the learned and celebrated Benjamin 
Hoadly, Bishop of Winchester. The father of these 
illustrious brothers not only watched over their in- 
fancy with parental affection, but was himself their 
instructor in classic literature ; he perceived with 
delight that they were possessed of unwearied industry 
and fine capacities, and, from a comparative estimate 
of their respective abilities, is said to have hazarded 
a prediction as to their future progress in life, which 
subsequent events did not altogether justify. My 



JOHN HOADLY. 331 

son John, said he, will be a bishop, and Benjamin an 
archbishop ; both attained episcopal dignity, but the 
archbishopric was conferred not on the elder, but on 
the younger of his sons.* 

The subject of the present memoir was chaplain 
to Bishop Burnet, and by him installed chancellor 
and canon residentiary of the church of Salisbury, 
archdeacon of Sarum, and rector of St. Edmund's in 
that city, and was afterwards made canon of the 
church of Hereford by his brother when bishop of that 
see. By the king's letter of the 3rd of June, 1727? 
he was advanced to the sees of Leighlin and Ferns. 
George the First, however, having died on the 11th 
of the same month, before either he or his predecessor, 
Bishop Hort, could pass patent for their respective 
preferments, he procured confirmatory letters from 
George the Second, dated on the 10th of August, in 
the same year, and was consecrated in Patrick's Church 
on the 3rd of September following, by William, 
Archbishop of Dublin, and other assisting bishops. 
In 1708 he preached in the Cathedral of Salisbury, 
before the judges of assize and the grand jury, on the 
text from Daniel, a And those that walk in pride he 
is able to abase." In this, his sermon, he inveighed 
against following the latitudes of conscience and dis- 
sent in religious matters. " When men throw T off 
the whole body of a Church government, because of 
some things that they dislike in that Church, and 
make a separation upon the account of what they 



* Nicholson's Lit y . Anecdotes, vol. iii. 



332 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

confess to be lawful, it is to be observed, whether 
something besides conviction may not have a hand in 
it. And when those, who raise that government to 
an absolute divine necessity, yet resist and set them- 
selves against the authority of those who are possessed 
of it, it is much if the haughtiness and ambition of 
some, making use of the malice or ignorance of 
others, be not the real ground of the contest, es- 
pecially, if we see it managed with all the contempt 
and slander possible, with equal heat and equal false- 
hood. Pride is the ground of rebellion and unjust 
murmuring, of schism and opposition to our superiors; 
and so it is of the tyranny of superiors over those 
who are made subject unto them." In the same ad- 
dress, he thus alludes to the passing political scenes, 
and the respective characters of King Lewis the Four- 
teenth and Queen Anne. " A man, whom I doubt 
not, you have all along seen that I have been describ- 
ing to you, the scourge of Europe for a series of many 
years, who hath brought slavery upon all under him, 
and been preparing it for all around him, by all the 
violence and base arts of pride and ambition. His 
own people he began with, whose liberties he hath 
completely ruined, and brought their parliaments and 
immunities and laws into the compass of his own 
will, and taken away from them the very countenance 
of freedom. Those of them, who professed not the 
king's religion, for that was the word, against the 
most sacred treaties, against repeated edicts, against 
all gratitude ; men, that never did any thing to de- 
serve it, except fixing him upon the throne, he hath 



JOHN HOADLY. 333 

either compelled to leave their conscience or their 
country and friends and estates. His neighbours he 
has seized on by unjust pretensions, or invaded with 
groundless wars, or cheated with perfidious treaties, or 
swallowed by forgery and broken faith, never show- 
ing the least regard to justice or conscience, to de- 
cency or reputation in the accomplishment of any of 
his designs ; but he hath in express terms, not been 
ashamed to make his glory the ground of a war, 
which he once undertook, that is to say, an unjust 
one ; and, because God has suffered him to proceed 
with success in his tyranny, and hath made use of 
him as his axe and rod and staff, he hath been filled 
with pride, and courted the most scandalous flatteries, 
and assumed the titles of invincible and immortal to 
himself. And from the contraries of all these parti- 
culars, we may take a character of one, whom God is 
now pleased to make use of to abase the pride of this 
great tyrant ; of one, who knows herself made for the 
good of her people ; who imitates the goodness of 
him on whom she acknowledges her dependence, in 
making it her glory to spread the good effects of her 
power among her subjects ; who feels the happiness 
of governing a free people, and will never teach or 
tempt them to violate that conscience, which is the 
security of their obedience; who, being easy and be- 
loved at home, studies the peace and security of her 
neighbours, and sends assistance to the injured and 
oppressed ; who returns the praise of all to God, 
whose authority, and not her own she bears; in 
short, one whose only pride is the power she hath to 



334 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

make her own subjects happy, and others safe. This 
is she, whom he that is mighty hath magnified, and 
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of 
their hearts," &c. 

In 1715, on the elevation of his brother to the 
bishopric of Bangor, he preached the consecration 
sermon at Ely House chapel, selecting for his text 2 
Cor. i. 12, in which, alluding to the Church of Eng- 
land and the establishment of the Protestant succes- 
sion, he adds, " We have lately seen that Church and 
that government on the brink of ruin ; but, by the 
blessing of God on the wise conduct of our go- 
vernors, preserved to us. It might have lain very 
much in us, when we had foreseen that danger, to 
have prevented it by pressing that obedience, which 
had at other times been unreasonably exalted, and 
by teaching men not to surmise and murmur and be 
tumultuous, and it was not sincerity that made any 
who are in this Church and government careless and 
remiss in doing so ; but now that the danger is, by 
the providence of God, gone over us, with no other 
effect but that of greater strength and security, it 
may lie in us to strengthen that security still further 
by preaching charity and peace and legal submission, 
by teaching men to place the unity of Christians not 
in opinions and outward worship, but in faith, and 
obedience, and love, and the happiness of a people in 
the right they have to their liberties, and in the en- 
joyment of a prince, who is a tender assertor of 
them." In 1717 Sir Peter King, Chief Justice of 
the Common Pleas, presented him to the rectory of 



JOHN HOADLY. 335 

Oakham in Surrey. In the same year he was one of 
the chaplains in ordinary to His Majesty, and preached 
before the House of Commons at St. Margaret's, 
Westminster, on the text 1 Cor. x. 11, in which he 
again warmly inculcated brotherly love and Christian 
charity. " It is a grief and a shame," he said, " that 
we should come into the house of God, charged with 
the resentment of party politics, which renders us 
not very well disposed to pray with that charity, 
which is necessary to our being forgiven, or to hear 
with that candour, which is necessary to our being 
edified ;" and again, " There is nothing, I think, 
plainer in the rules of civil society, than that no man 
is to be abridged of his rights in it but for those 
things which immediately affect its security, and 
there is nothing plainer in the gospel, than that since- 
rity and godly simplicity is our proper rejoicing before 
our Judge, and that our union to Christ, our head, 
and to one another consists in a union of faith and 
love, and not in an outward conformity of worship ; 
so that to compel men to this outward conformity, 
either by using them as schismatics from the body of 
Christ, or as unfit and dangerous members of the 
civil society, is not just either in politics or Christia- 
nity. I am free to speak thus of this matter, because 
all Churches are apt to be faulty in it, and all parties 
apt to make advantage of their uncharitableness to 
one another, and to confine the favours that are in 
their power to their own sect. Men, that have had 
ill designs, have ever made use of these prejudices to 
play their common enemies at one another, and each 



336 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



side have been too glad to catch at these opportuni- 
ties of destroying the other, though it hath been to 
their own ruin." In this sermon also the prelate 
indulged very fully his taste for political disquisi- 
tion, and, as it was spoken on the anniversary of the 
martyrdom of King Charles, such a course was 
more pressed upon his attention ; and he concluded 
with a eulogy of the new 7 sovereign, even more ela- 
borate than he had passed on Queen Anne during 
her reign. 

At the close of the year in which King died, on 
the 13th of January, 1729? Hoadly was translated to 
this see. Dean Swift thus alludes to this prelate in 
one of his letters to Pope : " I am lord mayor of 120 
houses, I am absolute lord of the greatest cathedral 
in the kingdom, am at peace with the neighbouring 
princes, the lord mayor of the city and the archbishop 
of Dublin, only the latter, like the King of France, 
sometimes attempts encroachments on my dominions 
as old Lewis did upon Lorraine." In November, 1 739 5 
the Duke of Devonshire being lord lieutenant, Doctor 
Hoadly was of the privy council, when the proclama- 
tion was issued, requiring all justices, magistrates, 
&c, to search for and seize arms in the possession of 
any Papist or reputed Papist, and to prosecute any 
Papist who should presume to carry arms contrary to 
the intent of the proclamation. In 1741 was passed 
the act 15 Geo. II. c. 5, enabling archbishops and 
bishops to demise part of their demesne lands, and to 
change the sites of their mansion houses ; and, on the 
24th of October of the following year, Doctor Hoadly 



JOHN HOADLY. 337 

was translated to Armagh, having filled this see 
during thirteen years. In that interval he expended 
about £2,500 in overturning the ancient remains of 
the castle of Tallagh, and constructed from the ma- 
terials a convenient and elegant episcopal palace. 
At the time of his translation to Armagh, the Duke 
of Devonshire was lord lieutenant of Ireland, and he, 
according to Doctor Kippis, made all solicitation for 
the primacy needless within an hour after the news of 
its vacancy had arrived in London. His expression 
to the king was, that he could not do without him 
there. " It is probable," adds Stuart,* " that as a 
politician and a leading member of the privy council. 
Doctor Hoadly adopted the system of his predeces- 
sor, Primate Boulter, and supported what was then 
absurdly styled the English interest in this country, 
in marked contradistinction to that of its aboriginal 
inhabitants, as if the prosperity of the one party were 
utterly incompatible with the welfare of the other, and 
the power of the state were solely upheld by the dis- 
cords of the people." In accordance with this policy 
his name appears annexed to a proclamation issued by 
the privy council on the 28th of February, 1743, in 
which all justices of the peace and other persons offi- 
cially empowered were strictly commanded to enforce 
the penal laws, enacted in the ninth year of the reign of 
King William, for the caption and imprisonment of all 
papal archbishops, bishops, Jesuits, friars, and other 
ecclesiastics ; but, as such transactions are more pro- 

* Hist, of Armagh, p. 434, 

Z 



338 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

perly referrible to the history of the Roman Catholic 
prelates, they are reserved for that portion of the work. 
In 1742 and 1744 he was one of the lords justices ex- 
ercising the government of Ireland, and is recorded 
as having given peculiar satisfaction by his easiness 
of access, his general knowledge of the state of the 
country, his quick penetration, and the peculiar faci- 
lity with which he despatched the public business. 
An instance of his liberality in the latter year will be 
found in the memoir of Doctor Linegar, the Roman 
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin at that period. 

After about four years' enjoyment of the primacy, 
he died at Rathfarnham of fever, on the 19th of 
July, 1746, at the age of 68, and was buried pri- 
vately at Tallagh, in the same vault with his lady and 
her mother. A contemporary describes him as having 
been " pious, without superstition ; charitable, with- 
out ostentation ; learned, without pride ; facetious 
and entertaining, without levity ; and capable of 
adapting his conversation to persons of all ages, man- 
ners, and professions." It is not to be forgotten that 
Primate Hoadly was a skilful agriculturist ; delighted 
in practical farming ; and was beloved by his tenantry 
and the landholders of the country, among whom he 
had excited, both by his example and by judicious 
pecuniary rewards, a strong desire to improve their 
grounds, and a generous spirit of emulation. In the 
literary world, as a polemic writer, he displayed 
considerable acuteness and talent ; and, although not 
so powerful in argument as his brother, yet the style 
of his composition was, perhaps, less intricate and 



CHARLES COBBE. 339 

perplexed than that of the Bishop of Winchester, of 
whom Pope sarcastically wrote : 

" Swift for closer style, 
But Hoadly for a period of a mile." 

In 1703 he published a quarto volume, in defence of 
Bishop Burnet's exposition of the Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles of the Church of England. He also printed a 
second work, in octavo, on the same subject, besides 
various sermons. 



CHARLES COBBE. 
[Succ. 1742. Ob. 1765.] 

Charles Cobbe was born at Winchester, where he 
received the rudiments of his education ; hence he 
removed to Trinity College, Oxford, but took his 
degree of doctor of divinity in the University of 
Dublin on the 9th of March, 1735. His first eccle- 
siastical preferment was to the rectory of Skrine, in 
the diocese of Meath. He was afterwards appointed 
Dean of Ardagh, whence he was promoted to the 
sees of Killala and Achonry, by letter of privy seal 
dated 30th of May, 1720. In 1726 he was trans- 
lated to the see of Dromore ; and from that, in 
March, 1731, to Kildare, with which latter dignity 
he held the deanery of Christ Church, Dublin, and 
the preceptory of Tully, in the county of Kildare, 
in commendam. On the 19th of July, 1734, he was 
sworn of the privy council ; and was finally trans- 
lated to this see by letters patent, dated 4th of March, 
1742. 

z 2 



340 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 






In the parliament of 1743 he was one of the 
spiritual lords, who desired leave to be absent from 
the trial of Lord Netterville, by protestation, "saving 
to themselves and their successors all such right in 
judicature as they have by law, and of right ought 
to have." At the same period he was one of the 
council, (the Duke of Devonshire being then vice- 
roy,) who subscribed the proclamation of February 
1743-4, alluded to in the life of Archbishop Hoadly. 
In September 1 745, on the breaking out of the re- 
bellion in Scotland, he addressed a circular letter to 
his clergy from the palace of St. Sepulchre's, where- 
in he directed them : " First, frequently to remind 
those committed to their charge of the excellency 
of that holy Protestant religion, which it is their 
happiness to profess and which is by law established 
in this kingdom ; to entreat them earnestly to be 
steadfast, even unto death, in the profession of it ; to 
advise and caution them against the artful insinua- 
tions of all those, who would persuade them to think 
favourably of Popery ; to lay open the pernicious 
tendency of its doctrines ; and to recommend that 
spirit of concord and unanimity among Protestants 
of all denominations, which was ever more their duty, 
and, in circumstances of danger, their strength and 
security. Second, in their discourses from the pul- 
pit, to lay open the nature and the consequences 
of the horrid crime of rebellion ; to press upon their 
hearers the important duties of loyalty and obedience 
to his sacred Majesty King George, to which they 
were bound by the laws of God and man, and by 



CHARLES COBBE. 34 L 

all the ties of public and private interest ; to incul- 
cate frequently and earnestly the dangerous absur- 
dity there is in supposing* that their religion, their 
liberties, and their properties, could by any acts or 
conditions be secured under a prince bigoted to 
Popery, and bred in the tyrannical principles of 
arbitrary government ; and to exhort them constantly 
and warmly to offer up their prayers to Almighty 
God, with the utmost fervency and devotion, to bless 
the arms of his Majesty against his foreign and do- 
mestic enemies," &c. &c. With this abhorrence, how- 
ever, of w Popery" in connexion with the State, it is 
creditable to this prelate to record, that when a bill 
was introduced in the House of Lords, of a very se- 
vere penal nature against the Roman Catholic clergy, 
in 1757> he and the Protestant Primate of Armagh 
spoke most strenuously against it, and, although it 
was read a third time in that house, they contested 
it to a division on every reading. Their minority 
on the last occasion was twenty-one to twenty-four, 
nor indeed should it be forgotten, that in this mi- 
nority were, of the Protestant hierarchy, four arch- 
bishops and ten bishops, only four prelates being 
amongst the supporters of the persecuting measure. 

In 1759 Archbishop Cobbe was very active in 
procuring the investment of the charitable donations, 
bequeathed by Andrew Wilson, Esq. and the Reve- 
rend William Wilson of Piersefield, in the county of 
Westmeath, for the purpose of an hospital for such 
aged men, being Protestants and decayed housekeepers 
of said county or other adjacent counties, as should 



342 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

be approved by the trustees of his will, their number 
not to exceed forty ; and also for the habitation of 
such number of Protestant male children of the said 
county or counties as approved of, not exceeding 
150, and also to build a school adjoining to said 
hospital, said men and children to be supplied with 
diet and clothing, their dress to be blue bound with 
orange, &c. Doctor Cobbe procured a bill to con- 
firm this endowment, and to enable himself and the 
other trustees to make leases of the lands so devised, 
being upwards of 3000 acres, the annual rental of 
which was some few years since estimated at £5000. 
Archbishop Cobbe died at St. Sepulchre's, on the 
12th of April, 1765, in the 79th year of his age, and 
was interred at the church of Dunabate near Dublin, 
a large portion of which parish his Grace's descendant 
and namesake, Charles Cobbe, Esq., inherits. By his 
will he left £200 to the Incorporated Society, and 
£50 towards building a chapel at the work house. 



WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, 
[Succ. 1765. Ob. eodem anno.] 

The Honourable William Carmichael was the 
second son of the second Earl of Hyndford, and bro- 
ther of the third. In 1742 he was appointed Arch- 
deacon of Bucks ; on the 5th of January, 1 753, was 
consecrated Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh; 
in 1756 he preached the anniversary sermon on King 
Charles's martyrdom before the House of Lords, 
and received the usual vote of thanks ; in 1 758 was 



ARTHUR SMYTH. 343 



translated to the sees of Leighlin and Ferns, and in 
the same year to that of Meath. On the 12th of 
June, 1 765, he was further translated from Meath to 
this see, but died on the 15th of December in the 
same year at Bath. He married Mrs. Godschall in 
August, 1734, but left no issue. 



ARTHUR SMYTH. 
[Succ. 1766. Ob. 1771.] 

Arthur Smyth, Doctor of Divinity and Dean of 
Deny, was by letters patent of March, 1 752, pro- 
moted to the united Bishoprics of Clonfert and Kil- 
macduagh, and was consecrated in St. Andrew's 
Church, Dublin, by John, Archbishop of Tuam. By 
letters patent of January, 1 753, he was translated to 
the sees of Down and Connor; by privy seal dated 
1st of October, 1765, was further translated to the see 
of Meath, and thence on the 14th of April, 1766, to 
this archbishopric. He died at his palace of St. 
Sepulchre's on the 14th of December, 1771? and was 
buried with great solemnity in the choir of St. Pa- 
trick's cathedral, where a superb monument was 
erected to his memory, designed by Mr. Smyth, the 
architect, and sculptured by Van Nost. 

Archbishop Smyth amassed, during his prefer- 
ments, property to the amount of £50,000, of which 
he bequeathed £1000 to augment the funds of 
Swift's Hospital, £200 to the poor of St. Sepul- 
chre's, and £50 to those of the parish of Tallagh. 
His character has been thus drawn by his successor : 



344 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

" He was endowed with talents* and qualified by expe- 
rience for a due execution of the great trust commit- 
ted to him, and both had received improvements from, 
(what is unquestionably a great acquisition but at the 
same time a rare felicity to those of our order,) travel 
and observation. He had penetration to discern, at the 
most critical conjunctures, and firmness to accom- 
plish, upon the most trying occasions, what appeared 
to him for the real benefit of the community, either 
in Church or State. In a word, his attention to his 
duty kept pace with his knowledge of it. How 
great his regard was for places of worship, and how 
justly he is to be ranked in the number of those, who, 
in the warmth of David's phrase, ' have set their 
affection to the house of their God,' appears from 
the improvements made by him, at no inconsiderable 
expense, in the choir of the ancient and venerable 
fabric of St. Patrick's. His attention to the dis- 
tresses of the most forlorn and pitiable of the human 
species, is fully evinced by his liberality to St. Pa- 
trick's Hospital, an institution as humane and consi- 
derate as was ever planned in any country, and well 
worthy of its great founder, Swift."* 

JOHN CRADOCK. 

[Succ. 1772. Ob. 1778.] 

John Cradock was born at Wolverham, educated 
at Cambridge, where he took his degree of doctor of 

* Archbishop Cradock' s Primary Charge, 



JOHN CRADOCK. 345 

divinity, and by the patronage of Lord Gower be- 
came rector of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and sub- 
sequently chaplain to the Duke of Bedford, whose 
duchess was the daughter of Lord Gower. He ac- 
companied this nobleman to Ireland in 1757? and, in 
two months after his patron's appointment to the 
viceroyalty of that country, Doctor Cradock was 
himself elected to the see of Kilmore ; and on the 
4th of December following consecrated bishop there- 
of, in St. Michael's Church, Dublin. In February, 
1772, he was translated to this see, and held his pri- 
mary visitation in the June of that year, in which he 
particularly inveighed against the Jesuits, recom- 
mended the preaching of occasional controversial 
sermons, exhorted his clergy to attend to the state of 
the charity schools, to visit and frequently inspect 
the charter schools, ordered terriers of the several 
parishes of the diocese to be completed and register- 
ed, and copies of the registries of baptisms, mar- 
riages, and burials in each parish to be given in annu- 
ally at the visitation, enforced the expediency of the 
liturgy, residence of the clergy, &c. 

In 1773 he was one of the eighteen peers, who 
protested against the passing of a bill, for securing the 
repayment of money lent by Papists to Protestants 
on mortgages of land ; " Because," as the protest sets 
out, " all the laws made in this kingdom against Pa- 
pists have been the effect of their rebellions and trea- 
sons against the State, and are to be considered as 
tending to preserve the Protestant interest against 
the encroachments of Popery ; because the bill tends, 



346 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

in part, to repeal the Popery laws, which were made 
by those who immediately saw and experienced the 
intolerant principles of the Popish religion, and its 
enmity to the civil rights of mankind ; because that, 
as attempts to introduce bills in favour of Papists 
have become frequent, the number of converts to the 
established religion has decreased in proportion, and 
this decrease is particularly observable in the two last 
years ; because the great object and tendency of the 
Popery laws being to prevent an increase of Popish 
influence, and to operate as encouragements to con- 
formity, this bill tends to defeat both these purposes ; 
because the Papists, who have now no other method 
of employing their money than in trade, or by lend- 
ing it on personal security, or by subscribing to the 
public loans, and thereby contributing to support the 
credit of this kingdom, will, should this bill pass into 
a law, be induced to call in all the money, which they 
have lent on personal security to tradesmen and ma- 
nufacturers, which, as we conceive, forms a consi- 
derable part of that capital by which the trade of 
this country is supported, and thereby necessarily 
lessen the extent of our trade, cause a considerable 
decrease in our exports, and, consequently, reduce 
many of our manufacturers to want and beggary, or 
force them to seek employment in foreign countries; 
nor, as we conceive, will the evil consequences of 
this bill stop here ; for, should the public have occa- 
sion for future loans, it is not to be imagined that 
Papists will lend their money at four per cent, to go- 
vernment, (as they now do,) or, even at four and an 






ROBERT FOWLER. 347 

half per cent., when they can lend it on mortgages, 
at an interest of six per cent.," &e. &c* In 1777 he 
incurred the vituperative assaults of Doctor Duigenan, 
who, in the pamphlet " Lachrymce Academicce" 
took occasion to censure him, on account of his hav- 
ing, as visiter of Trinity College, spoken rather fa- 
vourably of the Provost Hutchinson, against whom 
that pamphlet was written. Doctor Cradock died 
on the 11th of December in the ensuing year, and was 
buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Cole says he was 
" a portly, well-looking man, of a liberal turn of 
mind, and a social and generous disposition." 



ROBERT FOWLER. 
[Succ. 1778. Ob. 1801.] 

Robert Fowler, Doctor of Divinity and Preben- 
dary of Westminster, received his education at Tri- 
nity College, Cambridge, where he took the succes- 
sive degrees of bachelor of arts in 1747 5 master of 
arts in 1751, and doctor of divinity in 1764. In 
177U duing the administration of Lord Townsend, 
he was promoted to the see of Killaloe and Kilfenora, 
and on the 28th of July, in that year, consecrated in 
St. Patrick's Cathedral by the Archbishop of Dub- 
lin. In 1773 he was ordered by the House of Lords 
to preach before them at Christ Church on the 2nd 
of October, " being an anniversary thanksgiving for 
the deliverance of the Protestants of this kingdom 

* Lords' Journals, vol. iv. p. 702, &c. 



348 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

from the Popish massacre in 1641." On the 22nd of 
December, 1778, during the administration of Lord 
Buckingham, he was translated to this see ; his letters 
patent were passed on the 8th of January following, 
and, on the 13th of the same month, he was solemnly 
enthroned in Christ Church. 

In 1782 he was one of twelve spiritual peers 
who protested against the bill for the relief of the 
Dissenters, as likely to promote every species of clan- 
destine and improvident marriages, and those even 
within prohibited degrees, without publication of 
bans and without license or consent, &c. In 1789 
he concurred with fourteen other peers in protesting 
against the memorable address of the Irish House of 
Lords to the Prince of Wales, and against their 
resolution, that by such address they discharged an 
indispensable duty, " because," as the dissentients 
alleged, " the assuming a right in the Lords and 
Commons of Ireland alone, to confer upon his Royal 
Highness the Prince of Wales the government of 
this kingdom, under the style and title of Prince 
Regent of Ireland in the name and on the behalf of 
his Majesty, to exercise and administer, according to 
the laws and constitution of this kingdom, all regal 
powers and prerogatives to the crown and govern- 
ment thereof belonging, or the addressing his Royal 
Highness to take upon him such government in man- 
ner aforesaid, before he be enabled by law so to do, 
seems to us altogether unwarrantable, and to be 
highly dangerous, in its tendency to disturb and break 
the constitutional union, whereby this realm of Ire- 



CHARLES AGAR. 349 

land is for ever knit and united to the imperial crown 
of England, on which connexion the happiness of 
both kingdoms essentially depends ; and we are the 
more apprehensive of danger, lest the so doing 
should be considered as tending to the prejudice, dis- 
turbance, or derogation of the king's majesty in, of, 
or for the crown of this realm of Ireland."* He 
also joined in protesting against the resolution of the 
lords, that the answer of the lord lieutenant, refusing 
to transmit the address, was disrespectful to his Royal 
Highness and conveyed an unwarrantable censure on 
both houses of parliament. 

During the two last years of his life he resided 
for the benefit of his health at Bassingbourne Hall, 
near Dunmow in Essex, a seat w T hich his Grace had 
purchased from the Earl of Bandon, and there he died 
on the 10th of October, in the year 1801, leaving 
issue one son the present Bishop of Ossory, and two 
daughters, the eldest, Mary Countess of Kilkenny, 
the second married to the Hon. Richard Bourke, 
next brother of the Earl of Mayo. 



CHARLES AGAR. 

[Succ. 1801. Ob. 1809.] 

Charles Agar was the third son of Henry Agar, 
of Gowran Castle, in the county Kilkenny, Esq., 
by Anne, only daughter of William Ellis, Bishop 



Lords' Journals, vol. vi. p. 243. 



350 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

of Meath. He was educated in Westminster school, 
and subsequently at Christ Church, Oxford ; in the 
hall of which college is his portrait, as also the por- 
trait of his grandfather, Welbore Ellis, and of his 
uncle, Welbore Ellis, Lord Mendip. Having en- 
tered into holy orders, he was appointed first chaplain 
to the Duke of Northumberland whilst lord lieute- 
nant of Ireland in 1763; from which situation he 
was promoted to the deanery of Kilmore, and to the 
see of Cloyne in 1768. In 1779 he was translated 
to that of Cashel, over which he presided for twenty- 
two years, and during that interval completed the 
repairs of its fine cathedral and erected a new choir. 
He also caused all the old churches in the diocese to 
be restored, eleven new to be built, nine new glebes 
to be purchased, and nineteen glebe houses erected. 
At this period of his life, he acquired £40,000 
on a single fine for the Palliser estate, by running 
his own life against that of the existing lessee. 
In 1795 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron 
Somerton, and yet higher, as Viscount Somerton 
in 1800. 

In 1801 he was translated to the Archbishopric 
of Dublin, and was one of the representative spiritual 
peers in the first imperial parliament. In 1806 he was 
further dignified with the title of Earl of Normanton. 
He also enjoyed the honours and offices of privy 
councillor, trustee of the linen manufactory, governor 
of the Lying-in Hospital, and vice-president of the 
Charitable Musical Society ; during all which prefer- 
ments, he is said to have amassed a fortune of 



CHARLES AGAR. 351 

£400,000. In 1807 he and the other prelates of 
the Established Church were commanded by his Ma- 
jesty, to make a minute return of the state of the 
Irish Church in their respective provinces and sees, 
and in a visitation of the same year he directed, 
with a too long deferred regard for the working 
clergy, that the incumbents of the diocese should for 
the future pay to their curates £75 per annum, in- 
stead of £50 theretofore allowed. In the following 
year, he was the promoter of a bill for securing the 
estates and funds devised by the Rev. Richard Daniel, 
in trust to apply the profits for the relief of the poor 
of St. Luke's parish in the city of Dublin, the sup- 
port of the hospital of incurables and other charitable 
institutions, &c. In the July of the following year, 
becoming sensible of the approach of death, he pre- 
sented his son (the present Archdeacon of Kilmore) 
to the valuable prebendal stall of St. Michael in Christ 
Church Cathedral, and, dying on the 14th of that 
month, in the 73rd year of his age, at his house in 
Great Cumberland-street, London, was buried in 
Westminster Abbey. He left issue by his wife, the 
daughter of Mr. Benson a merchant of Dublin, three 
sons, to the eldest of whom his heraldic honours de- 
scended, and a daughter who had intermarried with 
Viscount Hawarden. 

The inability or reluctance of his Grace's relatives 
to afford any materials for this memoir, leaves only 
the foregoing particulars to record, while in truth 
the principal events of this prelate's life are more 
legitimately connected with the Church history of 



352 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Casliel ; and it remains only here to add, that in his 
time the act was passed for vesting in the Crown the 
archiepiscopal palace of St. Sepulchre, and applying 
the purchase money for the purposes therein named. 



EUSEBY CLEAVER. 
[Succ. 1809. Ob. 1819.] 

This prelate was a native of Buckinghamshire. 
His father, the Rev. William Cleaver, was for many 
years master of a very respectable school at Twyford, 
in that county, whose vicinity to Stowe, with the 
high character of this divine, caused his introduction 
to the Grenville family. His eldest son became 
thereupon tutor to the Marquis of Buckingham 
while that young nobleman was a student at Christ 
Church, Oxford, an event which in due time pro- 
duced important results to the whole family; for, 
while the elder brother obtained the bishoprics of 
Chester, Bangor, and St. Asaph, in succession, the 
younger, the subject of this notice, who also received 
his education in Christ Church, where he took the 
degree of master of arts in 1770, and in 1778 that 
of doctor of divinity, was preferred in 1 783 by the 
Earl of Egremont to the rectory of Tillington and 
another benefice in Sussex; and in 1787 accompa- 
nied the Marquis of Buckingham on the occasion of 
his second residence as a viceroy in Ireland. 

In March, 1789, he was consecrated Bishop of 
Cork, in June of the same year translated to the sees 
of Leighlin and Eerns, as bishop of which he, in 



JOHN GEORGE DE LA POER BERESFORD. 353 

1801, on the disfranchisement of the ancient borough 
of Old Leighlin, claimed the usual compensation 
money, £ 1 5,000, on the allegation that " it had been 
usual and customary for the lord bishop of Leighlin 
and Ferns, to nominate and appoint chiefly the bene- 
ficed clergy of the united dioceses of Leighlin and 
Ferns, as burgesses of the said corporation, which 
gave the said dioceses an interest in the rights and 
advantages of the same." He finally obtained this 
archiepiscopal dignity in 1809. No circumstance of 
public interest has been discovered respecting him 
while in this his last and highest preferment. After 
a long residence in Ireland he married a lady of that 
country, by whom he had several children, and died 
in the close of the year 1819 at Tunbridge Wells. 

JOHN GEORGE DE LA POER BERESFORD. 
[Succ. 1820. Resign. 1822.] 

This prelate was the third son of the first Mar- 
quis of Waterford. In 1805 he was consecrated 
Bishop of Cork, in 1807 was translated to Raphoe, 
and in 1819 was further translated to the see of 
Clogher. In 1820 he succeeded Archbishop Cleaver 
in this dignity. In 1821 he procured an act, enabling 
himself and his successors to demise the mansion house 
and demesne of Tallagh, belonging to this see, long 
the country residence of its prelates ; and in the fol- 
lowing year he was further promoted to the primacy 
of Armagh, which dignity he still enjoys, and to 
whose Church history the memoir of his life is more 

especially referrible. 

2 A 



334 archbishops of Dublin, 

william magee. 

[Succ. 1822. Ob, 1831.] 

The subject of the present memoir, having been 
the son of persons in a very humble station of life, 
was not indebted for any of his promotions to the 
ordinary advantages of family or fortune. He en- 
tered as a sizer in the University of Dublin, and in 
the studies of its course soon manifested his pro- 
ficiency, especially in the metaphysical and ethical 
sciences ; and in due time, after ordination, obtained 
a fellowship, and the assistant professorship of oriental 
tongues in the said establishment. In 1797 he preach- 
ed a " thanksgiving sermon on the delivery of this 
kingdom from invasion." In 1801 he published his 
" Discourses on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atone, 
ment and Sacrifice," a work more illustrative of 
erudition than genius ; but, undoubtedly, the great 
cause of his promotion in the Church. In 1802 he 
preached and published a " Sermon, occasioned by 
the Death of the Earl of Clare," an undeviating effu- 
sion of panegyric from beginning to end ; and in 
1804*, a " Memoir of the Life of the celebrated Doctor 
Percival of Manchester." About the year 1806 he 
became a senior fellow and professor of mathematics, 
and, being intimately acquainted with every branch 
of that science, he selected, for the use of the can- 
didates for fellowship, a course both concise and ele- 
mentary. The popularity, which his work on the 
Atonement had by this time acquired, caused his pro- 
motion in 1813 to the deanery of Cork, from which 



WILLIAM MAGEE. 355 

dignity he was advanced in 1819 to the see of Ra- 
phoe. 

In October, 1821, he held his primary visitation 
of that diocese, on which occasion he delivered a 
charge, of which the following extracts may prove 
interesting : speaking of confirmation, he said, " It 
maybe conceived as the consummation of baptism; it 
gives to that rite, in common view, significancy and 
substance ; and what before appeared as the gratuitous 
adoption of the unconscious infant into the visible 
Church of Christ, becomes now the voluntary accept- 
ance of the Christian covenant, and the spiritual ini- 
tiation of the intelligent and instructed ; so that with 
those, who cannot comprehend the value of infant 
baptism, it may be considered, with a certain latitude, 
as the baptism of the adult. Again, as confirmation 
is prescribed by the Church, as the legitimate intro- 
duction of the young Christian to the holy com- 
munion, it presents itself as an intelligible and con- 
necting medium between our two great sacraments. 
. . . ." In the same discourse he deprecated all de- 
viations from the rubric in administering divine ser- 
vice. " In the course of my circuit," he says, " I ob- 
served parts of the Liturgy disturbed from their due 
order ; in some, certain prayers were omitted ; in 
some, they were altered ; and, on the whole, liberties 
were taken, not unfrequently, with the directions of 
the Rubric, as if the performance of the service were 
left to the direction of the individual minister ; or, as 
if some of the matters prescribed were of such trifling 
import, as to render it a thing of indifference, whe- 

2 a 2 



356 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUB LINT. 

ther they were conformed to or not The};, 

who dissent from the Rubric, offend against the law 
of the land, for the Act of Uniformity enjoins on 
them an undeviating adherence to all its forms ; and 
they break through their own most solemn engage- 
ments, for, on their admission to holy orders, as well 
as on their appointment to their several cures, they 
have bound themselves repeatedly, by their deliberate 
and recorded declarations, to an exact conformity to the 
Book of Common Prayer." Further, alluding to the 
existing variations in the discipline of the Church, he 
condemned the administering of baptism in private 
houses, impugned the conduct of such clergymen as 
mingled in secular pursuits. " If they act so, they 
are not only acting in violation of their vows and in 
defeasance of their usefulness, but they are flinging 
from them that very respect and estimation which 
they are making these sacrifices to obtain. . . . The 
parish priest becomes lost in the country gentleman, 
and the spiritual guide superseded by the sociable com- 
panion." In this charge he styles the Socinians " the 
most presumptuous, and the least informed of all sects." 
In 1822 he was translated to the see of Dublin 
by the late Lord Liverpool, and held his primary 
visitation immediately afterwards in St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, when, instead of enforcing and recom- 
mending that conciliatory spirit, so recently urged 
by King George in his parting injunction to his 
Irish subjects, he fulminated a sweeping denuncia- 
tion against the immense majority of those subjects, 
and, in a childish indulgence of that figure of oratory, 



WILLIAM MAGEE. 357 

that is the most dangerous to indulge in, he rashly- 
insulted them, on the hard labour of whose hands 
his revenues, and those of his clergy, then so greatly- 
depended. In his charge on this occasion he says, 
" we, my reverend brethren, are placed in a station 
in which we are hemmed in by two opposite descrip- 
tions of professing Christians, the one possessing a 
Church, without what we can properly call a religion, 
and the other possessing a religion, without what we 
can properly call a Church; the one so blindly en- 
slaved to a supposed infallible ecclesiastical authority, 
as not to seek in the word of God a reason for the 
faith they profess, the other so confident in the in- 
fallibility of their individual judgment as to the 
reasons of their faith, that they deem it their duty 
to resist all authority in matters of religion. We, 
my brethren, are to keep clear of both extremes, and, 
holding the scriptures as our great charter, whilst 
we maintain the liberty with which Christ has made 
us free, we are to submit ourselves to the authority 
to which he has made us subject." Turning from 
this ill-judged and unfounded strain of abusive anti- 
thesis, he inveighed with more propriety against the 
exercise of private judgment, and the wandering of 
clergy or congregation to fashionable churches. The 
parochial clergy, he adds, should carefully consider, 
" how far their negligence or frequent absence from 
their appropriate station, or their substitution of 
others for the discharge of duties properly their own, 
may have produced this evil, by undermining the 
respect and interest with which the parish minister 



358 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 

should always be viewed The parish minis- 
ter has no right to depute another to the charge 
assigned to him, but under the special authority by 
which that charge had been conveyed. There is no 
point in which the laws of the Church are more 
peremptory and more unqualified than in this, that 
no person shall exercise the functions of a preacher or 
parish minister, without the express permission of the 
bishop within whose diocese he wishes to officiate." 
Alluding to the duty of clerical residence, he thus 
beautifully expressed himself. " The clergyman should 
be the true parish priest, in continual contact with 
his flock, — one whose voice they know, not only in 
constant residence amongst them but in continual 
intercourse with them;— their adviser, their friend, 
the moderator of their disputes, the composer of their 
differences, the careful instructor of their children ; — 
not content merely to afford spiritual aid where it 
may be demanded, but vigilant to discover where it 
may be applied, and prompt to bestow it where it 
will be received ; — stimulating all, and particularly 
the young, to come to that fountain of living waters 
which it is his office to dispense, and proving to his 
people by every possible exertion, that the first ob- 
ject he has at heart is their everlasting welfare." 
In this charge he further deplored " the relaxed 
state of Church discipline in this country," and es- 
pecially in the diocese of Dublin, which, " for a con- 
siderable series of years, had been deprived of the 
advantage of effective episcopal control," adding, 
that, except in the time of his immediate predecessor, 



WILLIAM MAGEE. 359 

ct the discipline of this diocese might be said to have 
been totally neglected." It is to be remarked, that 
one of perhaps the ablest letters even Doctor Doyle 
ever wrote, was an overwhelming comment on the 
arrogant and uncharitable portion of this discourse. 

In consistence with this avowal of bigotry, Doc- 
tor Magee became subsequently the great promoter 
of the new Reformation in Ireland, a species of re- 
ligious agitation which effected no object, but to 
disturb the Christian charities of the country? and 
whose agitation has not even yet subsided. His op- 
position to the burial of a Roman Catholic in the 
churchyard of St. Peter's parish, on the pretext of 
some legal form not having been complied with, was 
the consummation of his sectarian virulence, and by 
actually necessitating the establishment of Roman 
Catholic cemeteries, and enforcing exclusivenessin the 
grave, he out-heroded all the efforts that unchristian 
ingenuity ever concerted even for the division of 
Ireland. His conduct on this occasion was brought be- 
fore parliament in a petition signed by Mr. Devereux, 
of the county Wexford, and Mr. Eneas M'Donnell, 
of the county of Mayo. He is known also to have 
prohibited the natives of the valley of Glendalough 
from celebrating mass, as they had theretofore done, 
in their ancient and venerated cathedral of St. Kevin, 
availing himself of his right as archbishop to the 
ground on which the chapel stood. His evidence in 
1825, before a committee of the House of Lords, is 
an eloquent testimony to his character and opinions, 
indeed to the whole story of his life; but as it has 



360 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

been the only portion of these " Memoirs," which 
the author could have wished he was not necessitated 
to sketch, he much prefers referring the reader to 
what it can answer no national or charitable object to 
reprint ; and on the same principle he has studiously 
avoided any details or comments, that were not absolute- 
ly necessary for the illustration of the subject. In the 
latter period of his life he was reduced to a state of 
feebleness and childishness, that was ungenerously 
characterized as the immediate visitation of Provi- 
dence. On the 2nd of August, 1831, he was at- 
tacked by paralysis, died on the 18th of the same 
month at Redesdale House, near Stillorgan, aged 66 
years, and was buried within the ruins of the ancient 
church of Rathfarnham. It but remains to mention, 
that during his life-time he provided munificently 
for his sons, four of whom he brought up in his own 
principles and profession. 



RICHARD WHATELEY. 
[Succ. 1831. Vivens 1838.] 

All endeavours to obtain for this work any authen- 
tic or satisfactory particulars of the life of Doctor Whate- 
ley having utterly failed, even in quarters where a 
refusal could least be expected, the following notice 
must be considered rather a catalogue of his Grace's 
literary productions, than a memoir of his life ; as, 
however, his name is in truth more associated with 
these productions, than with any ecclesiastical or 
political act of importance, and as his Grace is still 



RICHARD WHATELEY. 



361 



living in the public eye and estimate, the deficiencies 
of this sketch may be the more easily excused. 

In 1821, being then a fellow of Oriel College, he 
re-published Archbishop King's work on Predestina- 
tion, with comments. In 1822 he preached the an- 
nual eight Bampton sermons before the University of 
Oxford, selecting for his subject, " the use and abuse 
of party feeling in matters of religion." In the fol- 
lowing year he published five sermons, which he had 
preached before the same body : 1, on the Christian 
duty of obedience to the rulers ; 2, on the Christian 
duty of obedience to the laws ; 3, on national bles- 
sings and judgments ; 4, on the use of human learn- 
ing in matters of religion ; and 5, on Christ being the 
only priest under the Gospel. In this latter, although 
he speaks of " the superstition and tyranny of the 
Romish Church," he yet " beseeches both parties to 
lay aside all bitterness of animosity, and abstain " from 
branding each other too hastily as persecuting bi- 
gots, or as lukewarm latitudinarians, nor rashly to 
attribute to their opponents motives which they dis- 
avow.'' In 1825 he published "Essays on some of 
the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion," which he 
dedicated to Lord Grenville. In 1826 " Letters on 
the Church by an Episcopalian." In 1828 "Essays 
on the Writings of St. Paul," and "Elements of 
Rhetoric." In 1829 a very curious little work, en- 
titled " Scripture Revelations on a future State." 
And in the same year, his " Elements of Logic," a 
work which the Edinburgh Review has handled very 
severely, characterizing its author as " indistinct, am- 



362 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

biguous, and even contradictory," and adding, that 
" it is only by applying the most favourable im- 
pression to his words, that he can be allowed credit for 
any thing like a correct opinion." In 1830 he was 
principal of St. Alban's Hall, and published his " Er- 
rors of Romanism," under the several heads of Super- 
stition,' 'Vicarious Religion,' 'Pious Frauds,' 'Un- 
due Reliance on human Authority,' ' Persecution,' 
and ' Trust in Names and Privileges ;' this work he 
dedicated to the Reverend Joseph Blanco White. 
In 1831 he was principal of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford, 
when he gave to the world his " Essay on the Omis- 
sion of Creeds, Liturgies, and Codes of Ecclesiastical 
Canons," and his " Introductory Letters on Political 
Economy." 

In the latter year he was consecrated Archbishop 
of Dublin ; in 1832 published "Essays on Secondary 
Punishments;" and in 1835 a volume of fifteen ser- 
mons delivered by him in his diocese. From all these 
works the writer of " Random Recollections of the 
House of Lords" has drawn the following estimate 
of his Grace. " He is better known as an author 
than as a legislator ; in the former capacity he stands 
unrivalled among his contemporaries in the particu- 
lar departments of literature to which he has specially 
applied himself. His works on rhetoric and logic 
are perhaps the best which have ever been written 
on the subjects. They abound with evidences of pro- 
found thought, varied knowledge, great mental acute- 
ness, and superior powers of reasoning ; but his theo- 
logical creed cannot, according to the representations 



RICHARD WHATELEY. 363 

of persons who have entered the lists with him, be 
commended for its orthodoxy." 



The brevity of these " Memoirs," in reference to 
the later archbishops, is not to be attributed to any 
neglect or omission of their compiler in applying, both 
by public advertisement, and by private letters, for 
fuller and authentic materials ; and he confidently 
hoped, that the magnitude of the undertaking in 
which he was engaged, with such a devotion of his 
time, his researches, and his money, would be cheer- 
fully responded to by every competent authority. In 
the above important instance, however, his expecta- 
tions were utterly extinguished, and, with the single 
exception of Mr. Cobbe of New-Bridge, the indivi- 
duals applied to either refused to answer ; or, as in 
the instance of one other more intimately connected 
with a memoir, absolutely refused to communicate 
what he could not but have well known. On news- 
paper notices, written in a temper and time when 
the acts of many of the respective prelates were the 
rallying points of a party, it would be utterly unsafe, 
and contrary to the spirit of this book, to rely, as it 
would equally, and for the same reasons, on the oral 
information of mere politicians. Had these " Me- 
moirs" been extended with such details, they would 
have been a tissue of popular opinions not of historical 
truths. 



MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



ROMAN CATHOLIC 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 



SINCE THE REFORMATION. 



In commencing these Memoirs, it is a painful duty 
to express, at once, surprise and regret, that so 
little has been done for the biography of the many, 
who have distinguished themselves in the arduous 
and long persecuted profession of the Roman Catho- 
lic priesthood in Ireland. It would have been but 
a long merited tribute to departed piety and excel- 
lence ; yet, is still suffered to descend only in oral 
traditions from generation to generation, more un- 
certain and, consequently, less revered by each suc- 
cessive transmission. While a code of religious per- 
secution, that assumed to legislate for the worship of 
the Deity, was suffered to crush the spirit and voice 
of Ireland, it could hardly be expected, that any 
attempt should be made to draw into notice the 
preachers and prelates of the proscribed faith ; the 
writer, the printer, the vender, the collector of their 



366 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

martyrologies would but subject themselves to parti- 
cipate in their sufferings. But, happily, those times 
have passed, and what was then, perhaps, a justifiable 
silence, is now a sacrilegious apathy. The ecclesias- 
tical history of the Island of Saints should not be de- 
ficient in so important a portion ; and, while the 
writer of this work will cheerfully contribute his 
collections to so creditable a design, he hopes that 
the patriotic contributions of others will not be want- 
ing hereafter, to fill up this hiatus in the literary 
poin cerium. 

After Hugh Curwen had, in 1559, abandoned 
the faith which he early professed, the parliamentary 
assertion of Queen Elizabeth's supremacy, and the 
imprisonments, banishments, persecutions, and eccle- 
siastical spoliations, that ensued, as recorded in the 
" Analecta Sacra" of the eloquent Doctor Roth, 
Roman Catholic Bishop of Ossory, prevented the ap- 
pointment of a prelate to this province for upwards of 
forty years ; during the whole of which interval, such 
severities were exercised over consciences, as were 
sufficient to impel the most peaceful and enduring 
people to vengeance and insubordination ; nor was 
foreign influence wanting to effectuate such unhappy 
consequences. The Roman Catholic potentates on 
the continent were soon apprised of the ordeal to 
which their faith was subjected in Ireland ; and am- 
bition and sympathy united to attract their attention 
and direct their energies to its estrangement from 
British government ; yet, is it a proud testimony to 
record, that all political intrigues were incompetent 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



367 



to loosen the allegiance of this suffering but loyal 
people. 

At length a riotous insurrection, headed by James 
Fitz-Maurice, the brother of the Earl of Desmond, 
provoked by the imprisonment of that unfortunate 
nobleman, and magnified at the Spanish court into 
an open rebellion against Elizabeth, induced Philip 
the Second to afford to the importunity of the insur- 
gent chief a troop of about eighty Spaniards, while 
he at the same time sent with the expedition a Fran- 
ciscan friar, named Matthew de Oviedo, charged 
with the important duty of ascertaining the true 
state of Ireland, and making his report upon its 
prospects. Happily the expedition was wholly un- 
successful, the rash leader perished in a brawl, and 
de Oviedo returned to his native country, whence, 
however, he was destined to revisit this in a capacity 
more legitimately connected with the object of this 
work. Succeeding efforts to seduce the Irish into a 
rebellious vindication of their wrongs were equally 
ineffective, and it is grateful to read over the list, 
which O' Sullivan records, of those lords and chief- 
tains, who, while subjected to all the penalties of 
professing the Catholic religion, renounced their 
resentments, adhered to the interests of Queen 
Elizabeth in defiance of foreign influence and as- 
sumed authority, and fought against the King of 
Spain, against O'Neill, O'Donnel, and O' Sullivan. 
Those " deluded Irish," as the latter chieftain would 
fain characterize them, were found in both classes of 
the Irish proprietary, as well the native Irish chiefs, 
(amongst whom are enumerated Denis O'Brien, 



3G8 .ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Earl of Thomond, Mac Carthy Dun, chief of Car- 
bry, Cathal Mac Carthy, chief of Muskerry, Maurice 
O'Brien, Baron of Inchiquin, O' Conor Don, titular 
King of Connaught, O'Melaghlin, Prince of Meath,) 
as many of the great lords of the English pale; (amongst 
whom appear the names of the Earl of Ormonde, Vis- 
count Buttevant, Lord Dunboyne, Bourke, Baron 
Castleconnel, Ulic Bourke, and his son Richard Earl 

of Clanrickard, Theobald Bourke, Bermingham, 

Baron Dunmore, Henry, William, and Gerald Eitz- 
Gerald, Lords of Kildare, St. Lawrence, Baron of 
Howth, Preston, Lord Gormanston, Nugent, Baron 
of Delvin, Eleming, Baron of Slane, Barnewall, Baron 
of Ballysmale, in Meath, Plunket, Baron Dunsany, 
Plunket, Baron of Killeen, &c.) Not all the innova- 
tions and persecutions that taunted them could shake 
the allegiance of these illustrious laymen, nor were 
the majority of the clergy, although, perhaps, more 
keenly sensitive of the trials of the faith, less tempe- 
rate in their demeanour towards the tyrants of the 
day. " Candour obliges us to acknowledge/' says 
Leland, " that the Romish clergy at this period," 
speaking of the era of the armada, " did not uni- 
formly concur in exciting the Irish to insurrections. 
Sullivan himself confesses, although it was his busi- 
ness to represent the religious zeal of his countrymen 
in the most advantageous point of view, that a con- 
siderable party among this clergy recommended a 
dutiful submission to government, and opposed the 
practices of their more intemperate brethren."* 



* Iceland's Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 306. 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



369 



The passiveness of the subject did not, however, 
ingratiate the good-will of the ruler ; the feelings of 
the Irish Catholics continued to be insulted, with such 
circumstances of exasperation as are best pourtrayed 
in a letter of the 14th of March, 1599? from the 
Earl of Desmond to the King of Spain, published in 
Stafford's Pacata Hibernia. " We are of long time," 
writes Desmond, " opprest by the English nation ; 
their government is such as Pharaoh himself never 
used the like, for they content not themselves with 
all temporal superiority, but by cruelty desire our 
blood and perpetual destruction ; to blot out the w r hole 
remembrance of our posterity, as also our old Ca- 
tholic religion, and to swear that the Queen of Eng- 
land is supreme of the Church ;" and he thereupon 
craved the King of Spain to assist him against his op- 
pressors. " Assist me in this goodly enterprise w r ith 
some help of such necessaries for the wars as your 
Majesty shall think requisite, and (after the quiet of 
my country) satisfaction shall ,be truly made for the 
same ; and, myself in person, with all my forces, shall 
be ready to serve your Highness in any country your 
Majesty shall command me." 

Upon receipt of this letter, the Spanish monarch 
again invited from his monastery the ecclesiastic be- 
fore alluded to, and, by his interest at the court of 
Home, Matthew de Oviedo revisited Ireland in May 
of the year 1600, in the high and responsible situa- 
tion of Archbishop of Dublin, 



2 B 



3J0 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

MATTHEW DE OVIEDO. 
[Succ. 1600. .] 

This ecclesiastical emissary and agent of Philip the 
Second, was born in Segovia, and received his edu- 
cation at Salamanca, " where," writes Samuel Lew- 
kenor in the reign of Elizabeth, " all kind of learn- 
ing was by most excellent men, with incredible in- 
dustry, professed." He subsequently became a Fran- 
ciscan friar, and presided for some time over the 
monastery of his order, at Toro in the diocese of 
Zamora in Old Castile.* On his revisiting Ireland, 
as before mentioned, although appointed to the eccle- 
siastical government ofLeinster, he immediately pro- 
ceeded to fulfil what seems to have been a more conge- 
nial object ; and, without a notice or observation of his 
diocese, he hurried into Ulster, eager to deliver his 
credentials to the chieftains, O'Neill and O'Donnell, 
who still exercised an almost uncontrolled sovereignty 
over that province. As soon as he had assured him- 
self of their services in the meditated Spanish inva- 
sion, he returned to his royal master, who seemed so 
confident in his powers of negotiation, as to attach 
him to the suite of Don Juan D' Aguila, with whom, 
and the Spanish forces designed for the emancipation 
of Ireland, he landed at Kinsale on the 2nd of Oc- 
tober, 1601. Immediately on their arrival, a procla- 
mation, which had been printed in Spain in the Sep- 
tember of that year, and was addressed to the Catho- 

. * Wadding. Annal. T. v. p. 246. 



MATTHEW DE OVIEDO. 



371 



lies of Ireland, was promulgated by Don Juan. In 
this manifesto, with the avowed policy that might be 
supposed to actuate a Spanish government, D' Aguila 
bitterly upbraided them for not considering, that 
Elizabeth was an excommunicated heretic, and that 
they could not fight in her cause without being he- 
retics themselves ; and, after lavishing the fairest pro- 
mises on the Irish gentry, if they would abandon the 
queen, he concluded by declaring, that, if they would 
obstinately persevere in supporting the cause of an 
excommunicated heretic, he would be compelled to 
treat them as incorrigible heretics themselves, and to 
persecute them as such even unto death.* Yet, al- 
though his most strenuous efforts were warmly se- 
conded by the presence and exhortations of de Oviedo, 
a prelate of their own communion, neither temptation 
nor threats could alienate the loyalty of Irish Ca- 
tholics. " None of account," admits Moryson, " re- 
paired to the Spaniards, except some dependants of 
Florence Mac Carthy, who was then in prison, and had 
invited them over. Don Juan offered six shillings 
per day to every horseman among the Irish that 
would join his standard, so that it is a wonder unto 
us, that from present staggering they fall not into flat 
defection."! 

On the 12th of October, 1601, Archbishop de 
Oviedo wrote to O'Neill and O'Donneli a letter, in 
which he openly avows himself the liege subject of 



* O'Conor's Histor. Address, p. 11. 
f JMoryson's Itinerary, f. 136. 



2 b 2 



372 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN", 

the Spanish monarch. " Pervenimus in Kinsale cum 
classe et exercitu Regis nostri Phiiippi, expectamus- 
vestras excellentias qualibet hora, veniant ergo quam 
velociter potuerint, portantes equos quibus maxime 
indigemus, et jam alia via scripsimus, non dico plura. 
Valete. Frater Matheus, Archiep. Dublinien."* 
In the January following it was deemed advisable 
that de Oviedo should be sent back to Spain with 
despatches, especially from the Desmond party, in 
order to consult thereupon with his royal master. 
Previously, however, to his departure he wrote to 
Florence Mac Carthy, the Mac Carthy More of the 
crisis, informing him, that after his (the archbishop's) 
arrival in Ireland, having knowledge of his lordship's 
valour and learning, he had an extreme desire to see, 
communicate, and confer with so principal a person- 
age, but that the danger of the way would not per- 
mit him. " I am now," he says, " departing into 
Spain, with grief that I have not visited those parts, 
but I hope shortly to return into this kingdom and 
into those parts to your satisfaction ; and be assured, 
that I will perform with his Majesty the office that a 
brother ought to do, that he should send aid from 
Spain. Yo Mateo, Arcobispo de Dublin."f He 
at the same time communicated his hopes and wishes 
to the Earl of Desmond in the following terms : — 
M My most honourable good Lord, — Having long 
desired a fit opportunity to write unto you, the same 
is now offered by Mr. John, whereof I am very glad, 

* Pacata Hibernia, p. 198. t lb. 



MATTHEW DE 0V1ED0. 373 

that by such a most sure and faithful messenger I 
might open my mind to your lordship, as also to 
shew that most certain and undoubted hope of aid is 
shortly to come ; I would most willingly have come 
unto your lordship's presence, which lately I have 
essayed, and doubtless would have done, unless I had 
been hindered by those lords which told me that 
present and imminent dangers were to be feared in 
my journey, unless I had an army of soldiers to con- 
duct me, and now, (but that there is a necessity of 
my returning into Spain,) I would have come to you 
in the company of Master John. But I hope that 
most speedily and most fortunately I shall return 
unto you again. In the mean time I have preter- 
mitted nothing which might tend to your profit, as 
well to our Catholic master, as any other whosoever, 
which now also in Spain I will perform : I would 
therefore entreat your Excellency that you would be 
of a good courage, together with all other of your 
faction, and that you would fight constantly and va- 
liantly for the faith and the liberty of your country, 
knowing and firmly hoping that the help of my lord the 
Catholic king is now coming, which, when it cometh, 
all things shall be prosperous, and will place you in 
your former liberty and security, that ye may possess 
your desired peace and tranquillity. The Almighty 
conserve your lordship in safety long to continue. 
From Donegal, the thirteenth of January, 1601." 
After the prelate's departure a letter was intercepted 
from the Duke of Lerma to him in the following 
terms, as translated in the Pacata Hibernia : " I have 



374 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

received your lordship's letters, giving thanks to God 
for the success of your journey, for by it it appears 
that there is a way and door open for many good 
purposes for his service ; and his Majesty hath much 
confidence of the care and zeal which your lordship 
hath for the progression in the same. Now we send 
you a good body of men, with such things as is ne- 
cessary, and more shall be prepared, and so continue 
sending as much as we may, whereof you need not 
doubt; for his Majesty, whom God preserve, holds it 
before his eyes; forasmuch as the most important 
thing, appertaining to this business, is the joining of 
the earls with Don Juan de Aguila, His Majesty 
commandeth your lordship to do in it your utmost 
endeavour, according to the confidence he hath in 
your zeal. God preserve your lordship. From Val- 
ladolid, the fifth of December, 1601. El Duque 
de Lerma, Marques de Denia." 

The utter discomfiture of the deceived but chival- 
rous Don Juan, extinguished the designs of Spain 
in this country, nor did his ecclesiastical coadjutor 
ever again revisit it. A fugitive and a wanderer 
from the diocese of his charge, de Oviedo passed the 
remainder of his days in Spain, a pensioner on the 
court, and died in obscurity. Fortunately for the 
interests and welfare of this country, his was the only 
instance of what may be properly called foreign in- 
fluence in the appointments to this high dignity. 

On the death of Queen Elizabeth, and the acces- 
sion of the son of Mary Queen of Scots to the throne, 
the hopes of the Irish Catholics naturally revived; they 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 375 

commenced fitting up the chapels, re-building the 
convents, and even restoring the ancient rites and 
ceremonies ; the hemisphere brightened, the foun- 
tains of persecution seemed closed at once, and the 
long exiled were returning to their families and 
homes. " Never did any monarch," as the late Doc- 
tor O'Conor justly observes, "ascend a throne under 
such happy auspices, as those under which James 
ascended that of Ireland. Harassed by the Tyrone 
wars our great chiefs were glad of an opportunity, 
which that accession afforded, to settle the peace of 
the kingdom on a foundation of permanent security. 
For this purpose they proclaimed, with loud and uni- 
versal enthusiasm throughout every part of the king- 
dom, that James was a monarch of their own race; that 
the blood of their ancient kings flowed in his veins; 
that their ancestors had crowned Robert Bruce at 
Dundalk, in 1315, for that very reason; that their 
monarchy was indeed hereditary, but that by the law 
of tenistry they could elect any senior, provided he 
was of the royal race ; that James was of that royal 
race ; that he was destined by Providence to sit on the 
Liqfail, the sacred stone of inauguration of the Irish 
kings, which is still preserved at Westminster; that he 
would unite three kingdoms as the shamrock, the 
symbol of the Trinity ; and that he would heal all the 
wounds which had been inflicted on Ireland through- 
out the preceding period of 440 years. James him- 
self, and the learned of Scotland, concurred with the 
bards of Ireland in this grand principle of hereditary 
descent," but, as the nephew of the venerable doc- 



376 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

tor observes in his History of the Irish Catholics, 
(p. 16.) " James, of all men, was the most unfit for 
composing the disorders of the times ; a determined 
and implacable enemy to the Catholic religion, he 
alienated its professors from all attachment to his go- 
vernment by the virulence of his antipathy ; one of 
his first gracious proclamations imported a general 
gaol delivery, except to murderers and Papists ; on 
his arrival at Newcastle, the frontier town of England, 
he gave liberty to all the prisoners except to those 
confined for treason, murder, and papistry ; and, by 
another proclamation, he pledged himself never to 
grant any toleration to the Catholics, and entailed a 
curse on his posterity if they granted any. To Ire- 
land he was equally hostile ; he and his ministers 
conceived that its prosperity would be the undermin- 
ing of England ; that tranquillity and order would 
produce a rivalship of trade and manufactures, that 
a union amongst its inhabitants might operate to the 
dissolution of the connexion. To prevent that union, 
to keep up distinctions and animosities, to exasperate 
parties, became accordingly the great objects of his 
policy. His views were favoured by the state of 
things at his accession, and of that state he took ad- 
vantage with a degree of address and malignity 
creditable to his talents for oppression." 

On the 22nd of February in the first year of his 
reign, a proclamation issued from the court of Westmin- 
ster, commanding all priests, secular and regular, within 
the kingdom, to abjure the realm before the 19th of 
March ensuing ; and all archbishops, bishops, lieute- 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 377 

nants, justices of the peace, &c, were ordered to be 
vigilant and careful after that day, in discovering and 
apprehending such priests as should remain contrary 
to the proclamation. "And we doubt not," pro- 
ceeds the document, " but that when it shall be con- 
sidered with indifferent judgment, what causes have 
moved us to use this providence against the said 
priests, all men will justify us therein ; for to whom is 
it unknown into what peril our person was like to 
be drawn, and our realm into confusion not many 
months since, by a circumstance first conceived by 
persons of that sort," (alluding to the plot, which, by 
the initiated, was called the Bye ; and, for which two 
priests were executed and embowelled alive ;*) " who, 
having prevailed with some, had undertaken to draw 
multitudes of others to assist the same by the autho- 
rity of their persuasions and motives, grounded chiefly 
upon matter of conscience and religion, which, when 
other princes shall duly observe, we assure ourselves, 
they will no way conceive that this alteration groweth 
from any change of disposition now more exasperate 
than heretofore, but out of necessary providence to 
prevent perils otherwise inevitable ; considering that 
their absolute submission to foreign jurisdiction, at 
their first taking orders, doth leave so conditional an 
authority to kings over their subjects, as the same 
power may dispense at pleasure with the straitest 
hand of loyalty and love between a king and his 
people. Amongst which foreign powers, although we 

* See Lingard, Hist. Engl. vol. vi, p. 16. 



3/8 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

acknowledge ourselves personally so much beholding 
to the now Bishop of Rome, for his kind offices and 
private temporal carriage towards us in many things, 
as we shall be ever ready to requite the same towards 
him, (as Bishop of Rome in state and condition of a 
secular prince,) yet, when we consider the course and 
claim of that see, we have no reason to imagine, that 
princes of our religion and profession can expect any 
assurance long to continue ; &c." 

A similar proclamation of the 4th of July, 1605, 
which de Burgo has preserved, issued from Westmin- 
ster, directing all Jesuits and priests to leave Ireland 
before the ensuing tenth of December ; and a further 
denunciation of this devoted hierarchy was fulminated 
from the palace of Greenwich, on the 10th of June, 
1606, wherein, after alluding to the celebrated plot 
of Catesby, Guy Fawkes and others, as " the late 
most horrible and almost incredible conjuration to blow 
up us, our children, and all the three estates in par- 
liament assembled," they, as its alleged instigators, 
received u the last warning" to depart the realm, on 
pain to incur the uttermost danger of the laws ; and, 
adds the king, " we do hereby protest, that this is 
done with no other purpose but to avoid the effusion 
of blood, and, by banishing them presently out of our 
dominions, to remove all cause of such severity as we 
shall otherwise be constrained to use towards the 
other sort of our people, as long as these seducers 
shall have opportunity, to betray their consciences 
and corrupt their loyalty." 

In Ireland persecution raged, not only against 
the priests but against the chiefs of the nobles and 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 379 

the people ; and, while on the one hand, Pope Paul 
the Fifth, by a brief of the 22nd of September, 1606, 
prohibited them, however persecuted they might be, 
from attending Protestant churches, sermons, or ser- 
vice, the king on the other, " sent instructions to 
the State for administering the oath of supremacy to 
the Catholic lawyers and justices of the peace, and 
for putting the laws against recusants in strict execu- 
tion. Accordingly, of sixteen aldermen and citizens 
of Dublin, summoned before the privy council, nine 
were censured in the Castle-chamber ; six fined each 
£100; the other three in £50 each; and all were 
committed prisoners to the Castle during the pleasure 
of the court. It was at the same time ordered, that 
none of the citizens should bear offices until they had 
conformed."* On this occasion, adds Leland, " all 
the old English families of the Pale took the alarm, 
and boldly remonstrated against the severity of these 
proceedings; they denied the legality of the sentence, 
by which those severities were inflicted ; and urged, 
that, by the statute of the 2nd of Elizabeth, the crime 
of recusancy had its punishment ascertained ; and 
that any extension of the penalty was illegal and un- 
constitutional. This remonstrance was presented to 
the council by an unusual concourse of people ; but 
the chief petitioners were confined to the Castle of 
Dublin, and Sir Patrick Barnewall, their great agent, 
was by the king's command sent in custody into 
England."f 



* Curry's Hist. Rev. p. 41. 

t Leland's Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. pp. 421-2. 



380 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Tyrannical as was this treatment of the Catholic 
laity, amidst " the calmest and most universal peace 
that was ever known in Ireland," that of their clergy 
was still more rigorous. A detail of their sufferings 
would be an irksome undertaking, and it must suffice 
to refer to one instance immediately connected with 
the affairs of this province. Robert Lalor, a native 
of Ireland, who, about the year 1 578, had received 
orders from Doctor Brady, then Roman Catholic Bi- 
shop of Kilmore, was, by the Pope, on the continued 
absence of de Oviedo, appointed vicar-general within 
the diocese of Dublin and those of Kildare and 
Ferns. This jurisdiction he exercised fearlessly and 
openly, until the period of the latter proclamation 
before alluded to, when, although he, at the hazard 
of his life, continued to perform the rites and service 
of his Church, prudence suggested frequent changes 
of his name and place as necessary to his personal 
safety. At last, however, he was apprehended in 
Dublin and committed to prison in the Castle. On 
his first examination, taken by the lord deputy him- 
self, he acknowledged that he was a priest, and or- 
dained by a titular bishop ; that he had accepted the 
title and office of the Pope's vicar-general in the 
three dioceses before named, and had exercised spiri- 
tual jurisdiction inforo conscientice, and in sundry 
other points he maintained and justified the Pope's 
ecclesiastical authority ; but denied his power to ex- 
communicate or depose his Majesty. He was accord- 
ingly indicted on the Act of Supremacy, arraigned, 

convicted and condemned, and so rested in prison 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 381 

during the next two terms. He then petitioned the 
lord deputy that he should be set at liberty, where- 
upon he was again examined before Sir Oliver St. 
John, Sir James Fullerton, and Sir Jeffry Fenton, 
the attorney and solicitor-general, when he made a 
confession, as Sir John Davis alleges, that he was 
not a lawful vicar-general ; acknowledged that king 
James was supreme governor in all causes, ecclesiasti- 
cal as well as civil, without any control of the Pope; 
that the bishops ordained by the king w T ere lawful 
bishops ; that no bishop made by the Pope had power 
to impugn the acts of his Majesty's bishops; and, 
lastly, professed himself willing to obey the king in 
all his lawful commands, either concerning the func- 
tion of priesthood, or any other duty belonging to a 
good subject. Such at least was the confession 
which the government of the day would fain have 
attributed to him ; but, when his friends and those of 
his religion heard of it, and consequently remon- 
strated against it as an act of apostacy, he protested 
to them that he had only (as seems far more probable) 
acknowledged the king's civil and temporal power, 
without any confession or admission of his authority 
in spiritual causes. This being reported to the lord 
deputy, he caused him to be indicted anew, as having 
incurred the pain of praemunire, by exercising epis- 
copal jurisdiction as vicar-general to the Pope and by 
virtue of a bull, contrary to the act 16 Ric. II. c. 5, 
a statute which Sir John Davis, then attorney-general 
for Ireland, very judiciously relied upon as framed in 
Catholic times of such high antiquity, as could not 



382 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

subject its provisions to the popular clamour that might 
be raised against those of modern innovation. In vain 
did Lalor plead that he was not within the statute ; 
first, as he was no suitor for the office of vicar-general, 
but it was imposed upon him, and he accepted it 
virtute obedientice only to obey his superiors ; next, 
as he only exercised the office of vicar-general in 
foro conscienticE) and not inforojudicii; and lastly, 
that certain copies of institutions, dispensations, and 
divorces, w T hich were produced against him as evi- 
dences of his exercising the office, were written by 
his clerk as precedents, without his privity or direc- 
tion, At length, " the day being far spent, the court 
demanded of the prisoner if he had any more to say 
for himself? his answer was, that he did willingly re- 
nounce the office of vicar-general, and did humbly 
crave his Majesty's grace and pardon, and to that end 
he desired the court to move the lord deputy to be 
favourable unto him. Then the jury departed from 
the bar, and returning within half an hour found the 
prisoner guilty of the contempt whereof he was con- 
victed. Whereupon the solicitor general moved the 
court to proceed to judgment, and Sir Dominick 
Sarsfield, knight, one of the justices of his Majesty's 
chief place, gave judgment according to the form of 
the statute whereupon the indictment was framed.'** 
The sentence, however, was never executed. 

In 1607 Pope Paul the Fifth, in consideration 

* Sir John Davis's Reports, p. 277. 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 383 

of the difficulties of access to the sacraments in this 
country, and the paucity of priests to administer 
them, enlarged the time for Easter communion to 
the festival of the Ascension, a regulation which 
still prevails. In the same year an anonymous letter 
was dropped in the council chamber at Dublin Castle, 
which Archdall gives at full length in a note in 
Lodge's Peerage, (vol. i. p. 237?) wherein a wild 
scheme of conspiracy was announced, as designed 
by the Catholics, without affording a single clew as 
of names, descriptions, or any other circumstances 
to test its veracity, yet the most implicit credit was 
volunteered to the narrative by the government 
party, the greatest terror was affected, the garrison 
of Dublin was reinforced, and the Castle put in a 
posture of defence. The malevolence of the report 
was soon established, and, during the three succeeding 
years, persecution only exhibited itself in threats and 
rumoured intentions, a circumstance which de Burgo 
attributes to the king being engaged, during that 
interval, in composing a defence of the oath of su- 
premacy against the exposition of the Pope and the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy. At length, on the 10th 
of July, 1610, Sir Arthur Chichester, then viceroy 
of Ireland, issued a proclamation against the practice 
of some going to foreign countries, and others send- 
ing their children to be educated at the universities 
of the continent ; the prohibition was made an engine 
of cruel inquiry and infliction, and the charities of 
Christian intercourse were again dissolved. In the 
ensuing year, Eugene Matthews was appointed Ro- 



384 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

man Catholic Archbishop of this province, after a 
lapse of ten years since its desertion by de Oviedo. 

EUGENE MATTHEWS, 
[Succ. 1611. Ob. 1623.J 

At the earliest period, in which any notice can 
be discovered of this venerable prelate, he appears 
in the station of parish priest of Clogher, from 
which charge he was elevated to its bishopric on 
the 31st of August, 1609, and on the 2nd of May, 
1611, was translated to this archiepiscopal dignity. 
It was a crisis of danger, and but one "little month" 
intervened, when Andrew Knox was transferred from 
the bishopric of Orkney to that of Raphoe, with the 
avowed object of extinguishing the Catholic faith in 
Ireland. By his immediate advice in council, those 
cruel proclamations issued against religion and edu- 
cation, requiring all the Papist clergy to quit the 
kingdom under pain of death, enjoining that none 
should send his child, relative, or ward, to be edu- 
cated in foreign seminaries, and that those, who had 
already sent such, should recall them within one 
year; prohibiting any Papist from filling the office of 
schoolmaster or teacher ; subjecting the harbourers 
or favourers of a Popish priest to confiscation of their 
goods ; requiring that all persons should attend 
the Protestant churches on Sundays and holidays, 
and that all churches, destroyed during the wars, 
should be rebuilt at the expense of the Papists, &c. ;* 



* De Burgo, Hib. Dom. p. 618. 



EUGENE MATTHEWS. 385 

and all these measures of Draconic severity were di- 
rected to be enforced with jealous and arbitrary vigi- 
lance. It is a painful reflection, that the spirit of 
such legislation should have emanated from an eccle- 
siastic. The Pagan priest of nature would, by the 
tender precepts of transmigration, have opened the 
benevolences of the heart even to the brute creation ; 
but this Christian prelate would, by the operation of 
a callous code, have closed them against his brother 
and his neighbour. The factors of persecution rioted 
with impunity over the land ; spies traversed the 
cities, the villages, the fields ; they scrutinized the 
habits, opinions, and thoughts of men ; threats and 
terrors were poured over the devoted people ; but, 
when the hand of a faction was heaviest upon them, 
when even the sovereign of their allegiance combined 
against their liberties, they adhered more tenaciously 
to their ancient faith, and to the priesthood of their 
service and sufferings. 

In 1613 the statute of Elizabeth, imposing a pe- 
nalty of twelve pence on every one absent on Sundays 
and holidays from church, was strictly enforced in 
many places ; but, on complaint that the fines were 
not disbursed to the poor, according to the provisions 
of that Act, the Lord Deputy Chichester informed his 
Majesty, that, as regarding such moneys as were levied 
in the county of Dublin, they were " left in the hands 
of the Clerk of the Crown by a special order from the 
Lord Deputy and Council, to be employed in repair- 
ing of churches and bridges and like charitable uses ; 
because," he adds, " the poor of the parishes, who 

2 c 



386 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

are not yet indicted, are not fit to receive the same, 
being recusants, and ought to pay the like penalty.'* 
At length, in the July of this year, the Catholics of 
Ireland resolved on sending a deputation, to represent 
to the king their grievances and the conduct of the 
Lord Lieutenant, and they accordingly made arrange- 
ments for a private collection amongst themselves to 
defray the expenses of the expedition ; the Viceroy 
Chichester, by proclamation, prohibited any such as- 
sessment, yet the deputies proceeded to England, 
offered at the foot of the throne the supplications of 
humanity, and had apparently a gracious reception. 
The king appointed four commissioners to visit Ire- 
land and investigate the subject, but their report was, 
as might be expected, favourable to the Deputy, and 
all charges against him were dismissed as frivolous 
and unjustifiable. 

On the 1st of May, 1614, King James, in his 
opening speech to parliament, gave bitter utterance 
to his hostility against the Irish Roman Catholics ; 
and on the 31st of the same month issued his royal 
proclamation against the "titular" prelates and 
clergy of Ireland, commanding them to quit the king- 
dom before the 30th of the ensuing September, 
under pain of being cast into a " narrow and strongly 
fortified prison," and there dealt with " according to 
justice and the nature of their offence."* Notwith- 
standing these denunciations, Archbishop Matthews in 
the ensuing month presided at a conference, held in 

* De Burgo. Hib. Dom. p. 630. 



EUGENE MATTHEWS. 387 

the city of Kilkenny, for the reformation and good 
government of the province of Dublin, on which 
occasion decrees were passed ; 1st, for the reception of 
the canons of the council of Trent, as far as compati- 
ble with the time and circumstances ; 2nd, for the 
establishment of vicars, and the appointment of deans 
to preside over the priesthood ; 3rd, for the due 
qualifications of the parochial clergy before appoint- 
ment, and their duties after, in the administration 
of sacraments within their respective parishes, the 
teaching the Christian doctrine, instructing their 
congregations in sermons, exhorting them to frequent 
confessions, and explaining the necessary dispositions 
to derive benefit therefrom, observing constant resi- 
dence amongst those committed to their care, adopt- 
ting a decorous dress when on duty or in their own 
houses or those of friends, &c. ; 4th, for the due admi- 
nistration of the sacrament of baptism, and in parti- 
cular the discontinuance of immersion of infants in 
this rite, and the substitution of the present mode 
by aspersion on the head. This canon also enjoins 
the immediate registry of the names of the children 
baptised, their parents and godfathers and god- 
mothers, the date, &c, and prohibits the exaction of 
any dues from the known poor, for administering this 
or any other sacrament, under pain of suspension ; 
5th, for the decorous celebration of " the awful 
mystery of the sacrifice of the mass," and in parti- 
cular, referring to the calamity that compelled the 
Roman Catholic clergy of the time to celebrate it in 
unconsecrated spots, and in the open air, this canon 

2 c 2 



388 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

directs, that at least a clean place should be selected 
where the altar might be sheltered from wind and 
rain, strictly prohibits the introduction of any prayers 
that are not in the Missal according to the Rubric, 
the exaction of alms without the permission of the 
ordinary, the exhibition of relics as in a country where 
they might be irreverently treated, the celebration 
of mass or any religious duties by an ecclesiastic in an 
external parish without the leave of the ordinary, and 
even restrains the ordinary's discretion therein, pro- 
hibits exorcisms and such superstitious practices, dis- 
countenances patrons at fountains and trees, and di- 
rects the tests of Christian doctrine and faith, on 
which alone persons should be admitted to confession ; 
6th, for the publicity and registering of marriages, 
the due qualifications of the contracting parties, and 
the prevention of clandestine contracts, or with wards 
or minors without the consent of parents or guar- 
dians; 7th, for the maintenance of the priests (" in- 
asmuch as the ecclesiastical revenues were in the 
hands of those opposed to their Church,") by collec- 
tions from their flock according to their means and 
with their consent ; 8th, for the morality of the clergy, 
their abstaining from mercantile pursuits, worldly 
traffic, farming, and especially from intermeddling in 
the affairs of the State or political questions ; 9th, 
for restraining preaching on articles of faith or con- 
troversy, by any but those licensed to do so by their 
ordinary, and after an approved course of theological 
studies ; 10th, for preventing disputations on matters 
of faith, or discussions on religious subjects during 



EUGENE MATTHEWS. 389 

the lighter hours of conviviality ; 11th, for the due 
observance of days of fasts or abstinence ; with a num- 
ber of other regulations and canons equally creditable 
to the prelate's benevolence, his prudence, and his 
knowledge of human nature. 

On the occasion of the regal visitation of 1615, 
the commissioners thus reported, in reference to this 
diocese, " the names of such Jesuits and other eminent 
priests as are appointed by the Pope, and do exercise 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction therein." 

c( Owen Matthews, Titular Archbishop of Dub- 
lin, harboured in Dublin secretly : Hollywood, a 
Jesuit, kept and harboured by Sir Christopher Plun- 
kett : Everard, brother to Sir John Everard, resorteth 
often to this city, and secretly is harboured : Lennon, 
a famous priest, kept by Nicholas Netterville : and 
Talbot, brother to William Talbot, is lately preferred 
to be vicar-general of the diocese of Dublin and Kil- 
dare for his brother's constancy in England." 

On the 13th of October, 1617* a proclamation 
issued from the Castle of Dublin, for the expulsion of 
all the regular clergy, and an individual of the name 
of John Boyton was commissioned to discover them, 
wherever they could be had ; by him several were 
accordingly detected, and some of the nobles, who 
sheltered them, were also thrown into prison,* while 
the judges were instructed by the Lord Deputy, St. 
John, to enforce on the ensuing circuits the pe- 



nalties and fines against recusants, who refused to 



* Ware's Annals. 



390 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

attend the Protestant service, the order being sub- 
scribed, amongst others of the council, by Archbishop 
Thomas Jones. 

The succeeding years of Doctor Matthews's exist- 
ence give but the records of a persecution too general 
to be appropriated to his memoir. Suffice it to say, 
he was at length obliged to yield to its advances, and 
retired in his old age to the Netherlands, where, in 
1623, the last year of his life, he was instrumental 
in founding a Roman Catholic college at Louvain, 
which received its appointments from the Propaganda 
at Rome. Immediately previous to this event, Lord 
Falkland was sent Viceroy to Ireland, with the novel 
commission to grant liberty of conscience to the Ca- 
tholics ; but so much was he overruled by the feelings 
of the Irish faction, who were nourished by their 
privations, that in four months after his arrival he 
reiterated the proclamation, commanding all Catholic 
priests, as well secular as regular, to leave the king- 
dom ; such has been the caprice and selfishness of too 
many of those Deputies, to whom the honour of the 
crown and the happiness of the people were commit- 
ted. On the meditated visit of Prince Charles, how- 
ever, to the court of Spain, this interdict was allowed 
to slumber. 

THOMAS FLEMING. 
[Succ. 1623. Ob. 1666.] 

Upon the death of Archbishop Matthews, Doctor 
Thomas Fleming, of the family of the barons of 
Slane, a Franciscan friar, and for some time a pro- 



THOMAS FLEMING. 3QI 

fessor of theology in Louvain, was, on the 23rd of 
October, 1 623, at the early age of thirty, deputed to 
the ecclesiastical government of this province by 
Pope Urban the Eighth, from whom he thereupon 
obtained letters apostolic, assuring the protection and 
patronage of his Holiness to the colleges founded 
on the Continent for the Irish priesthood, and also 
otherwise sanctioning and facilitating the mission in 
Ireland.* Paul Harris, a secular of the diocese, took 
occasion to inveigh bitterly against this and other 
selections of prelates from the class of the regulars. 
" If any," he says, " desire to know the names and 
numbers of our present friar bishops of this kingdom, 
they be as follow : Thomas Fleming, alias Barnewall, 
alias White, Archbishop of Dublin, Franciscan ; Boe- 
thius Egan, Bishop of Elphin, Franciscan ; Hugh 
Magennis, Bishop of Down, Franciscan ; Ross Mac 
Geoghegan, Bishop of Kildare, Dominican ; Patrick 
Comerford, Bishop of Waterford, Augustinian; which 
last is the only indifferent friar bishop under the 
clergy, of all that ever yet were sent into this king- 
dom. Some others we have, who, albeit they were 
elected out of the body of the clergy, yet because, 
standing upon their own feet they were not able to 
reach the apple of episcopal promotion, they mounted 
upon the friars' shoulders, and by their alone means 
have obtained the same, and for that cause are little 
more loving to the clergy, or less beloved of the 
friars than the former." 

On the accession of Charles the First to the 

* De Burgo, Hib. Dom. p. 874, 



392 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

throne, fairer prospects seemed to open for the Irish 
Catholics, and the royal instructions, directed on the 
24th of May, 1626, to Lord Falkland for the govern- 
ment of Ireland, declared, That his Catholic subjects 
of that country are to be admitted to sue their live- 
ries, ouster les mains, and other grants depending in 
the court of wards, taking only the oath of allegiance, 
and any other oath to be forborne in that case ; that 
Irish lawyers are to be admitted by the judges there 
to practise the law, taking only the said oath, &c. 
But the true motive, for this apparent relaxation of 
hostility to the Catholics, will be found in the royal 
anxiety to effectuate the proposed gift of £120,000, 
then sought to be contributed by the Irish, of which, 
as the proportion of Catholics was at that time, ac- 
cording to Sir William Petty, as eleven to two, the 
larger part was to be defrayed by them ; the better, 
therefore, to induce their acquiescence, the king gave 
his solemn promise, that, in the next session of parlia- 
ment, the grievances complained of should be redressed, 
and the above instructions were accordingly framed 
as a forerunner of what was called the Graces. The 
money was paid, but the Graces never appeared; and 
Lord Falkland even ventured to indulge his own line 
of politics, by issuing a proclamation on the 1st of 
April, 1629? importing, " that the late intermission 
of legal proceedings against Popish pretended titular 
archbishops, bishops, abbots, deans, vicars-general, 
Jesuits, friars, and others of that sort, that derive 
their pretended authority and orders from the see of 
Rome, in contempt of his Majesty's royal power and 
authority, had bred such an extraordinary insolence 



THOMAS FLEMING. 393 

and presumption in them, as he was necessitated to 
charge and command them, in his Majesty's name, to 
forbear the exercise of their Popish rites and cere- 
monies." " The proclamation," adds Cox,* " was 
baffled and ridiculed every where. It was read in 
Drogheda by a drunken soldier in such a ridiculous 
manner, that it seemed like a May game, and was 
rather sport than terror to the auditors. It was so 
despised and contemned by the Popish clergy, that 
they nevertheless exercised full jurisdiction even to 
excommunication, and they not only proceeded in 
building abbeys and monasteries, but had the confi- 
dence to erect a university at Dublin in the face of 
the Government, which, it seems, thought itself li- 
mited in this matter by instructions from England." 
The lenity, with which Cox would insinuate that this 
proclamation was used, is however contradicted by 
the occurrences that took place on the attempted sup- 
pression of the house of Carmelites in Cook-street, 
as detailed in the memoir of Archbishop Bulkeley, 
and, as best expressed in the language of an almost 
contemporaneous chronicle. " About this time the 
archbishop and mayor of Dublin seized upon several 
priests in that city in the act of massing, their trin- 
kets were taken from them, the images battered and 
destroyed, the priests and friars were delivered up to 
the soldiers, whom some Papists endeavoured to res- 
cue, but in vain, for, a far stronger power appearing 
with the magistrates, they were repelled; twelve 

* History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 53. 



394 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Popish aldermen were imprisoned for not assisting 
the mayor, and, upon their misbehaviour and mutiny, 
fifteen houses were seized and forfeited to the king, 
the friars and priests were ordered to be prosecuted, 
and two of them, to avoid justice, hanged themselves 
in prison; and yet, notwithstanding all this, some 
would have us believe that Popery was connived at, 
nay tolerated in their times, and that by the governors 
and government of that kingdom; but how truly 
such things are said may sufficiently from hence ap- 
pear."* In the end indeed Lord Falkland's " strict 
though legal administration in regard to the Papists, 
whom the court was inclined to favour, raised the 
loudest clamours against him from that party, who 
caused him to be dismissed from his viceroyalty with 
some circumstances of disgrace. "f 

During all these years, the before mentioned 
Paul Harris, who had conceived such an early preju- 
dice against Doctor Fleming, was unremitting in his 
tirades against him and the regular clergy, and, in a 
work which he entitled " Olfactorium," was so espe- 
cially severe, and criminatory of the Dominicans, that 
the archbishop felt himself obliged to cause inquiry 
to be made into the matter, the result of which pro- 
ving favourable to the regulars, the prelate published 
his desire, that, " in order to preserve peace, concord, 
and Christian charity between the seculars and regu- 
lars, none of his diocese, clergy or laymen, should 



* Annals of King Charles the First, p. 372. 

t Grainger's Biogr. Hist, of England, vol. ii. p. 147. 



THOMAS FLEMING. 3Q5 

purchase, keep, or read any copy of the said work 
under pain of excommunication," while these and 
other imputations of Harris were immediately after- 
wards denounced by the Pope's Nuncio from Brussels. 
The refractory clerk, however, regardless of ecclesi- 
astical censures or control, continued to publish his 
invectives, and even established a seminary in Dublin, 
contrary to authority ; in consequence of which he 
necessitated another public censure from this prelate, 
a prohibition against any hearing his masses, and an 
order from Rome to remove him from the diocese. 
On this treatment, as might be expected from the stiff- 
neckedness of human nature, he wrote and published 
more exasperated tracts against this archbishop and 
the regular clergy, in one of which he charges Doctor 
Fleming with being himself "excommunicated by 
name and denounced, and the same by a papal ex- 
communication legally and for most just causes pub- 
lished against him," and plainly accuses him not only 
of endeavouring to supplant the seculars and to fill 
their places with regulars, but also of usurping a 
power never before exercised of banishing some of 
his clergy from his diocese. On this latter ground, 
he subsequently arraigned his ordinary before the 
Lord Deputy, who gladly availed himself of the op- 
portunity to rebuke the prelate. Harris also charged 
the whole body of the regulars with holding and pro- 
mulgating tenets subversive of the seculars, and 
derogatory to their character as a priesthood ; but 
these allegations were most satisfactorily denied. As 
Harris, however, persevered in his libellous asper- 



396 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

sions, Cardinal Barberini, Prefect of the Propa- 
ganda, felt compelled to interfere ; and accordingly, 
by letter bearing date on the 1st of December, 1634, 
directed and authorized Doctor Thomas Dease, the 
Roman Catholic Bishop of Meath, to banish him from 
the diocese of Dublin : the bishop, however, fearful of 
the civil power, declined to act, and the sturdy priest 
replied, " Certes, if the Bishop of Meath's warrant 
come in the name of King Charles, it will doubtless 
be obeyed, but, if it come in any other man's name, 
Paul Harris is resolved not to depart, nay, if all the 
friars, priests, bishops, cardinals, popes, and a general 
council shall command him to depart, he will not re- 
move a foot out of the diocese of Dublin. No, no, 
with the good leave of the State, Paul Harris, now 
of the age of 63, hath set up his rest, and is resolved 
to say of Ireland, and in particular of this diocese of 
Dublin, here will he dwell, for that he hath made 
choice thereof, till such time as his better part be 
translated into a better habitation."* The remain- 
der of this individual's life is involved in the obscurity 
which generally awaits such self-promoted, ephemeral 
importance. 

In reference to the more general state of the 
Catholics in Ireland, it may be here mentioned, that, 
previous to the last mentioned transactions, the 
subsidies for the government having become burden- 
some to the Protestants, they represented to his Ma- 
jesty, that in lieu thereof the statute of Elizabeth 

* The Exile exiled, pp. 3, II. 



THOMAS FLEMING. 397 

should be enforced, and that, by exacting the penalties 
of twelve pence on every Sunday against every recu- 
sant absent from church, a sufficient fund would be 
obtained for the support of the army. The king- 
consented, and the fines were directed to be presented. 
In 1633, however, on the appointment of Lord Went- 
worth to the government, he objected to such a mode 
of assessment. " Not," said he, " but every good 
Englishman ought, as well in reason of State as in 
conscience, to desire the kingdom were well reduced 
to a conformity in religion ;*" but, as he afterwards 
adds, " if it took that good effect for which it was 
intended, it would come to nothing, and so would 
prove a covering narrower than a man could wrap 
himself in." 

The immediately ensuing years of Doctor Flem- 
ing's life appear to have been passed in the unob- 
truded exercise of his ecclesiastical duties, in the 
inculcation and promotion of which he is discovered 
in July, 1640, presiding at a provincial council, which 
was held at Tyrcrogher in the county of Kildare. 
Its canons, as yet extant, enforced the uniformity of 
discipline ; the publication of bans on the occasion 
of marriages ; the discreet concession of dispensations 
to the laity, or of faculties to the clergy ; forbade 
the marrying of persons, inhabiting other parishes, 
without the consent of their parish priest or ordinary, 
and also prohibited the regular clergy from adminis- 
tering extreme unction, baptism, or solemnizing matri- 
mony without the consent of the parish priest. 

* Strafford' j* State Letters, vol. i. p, 75. 



398 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

At the close of this year 9 even the hopes of the 
Catholics were utterly annihilated " by the appoint- 
ment of Sir John Borlase, an uncompromising bigot, 
and of Sir William Parsons, an implacable enemy to 
every thing Irish, to the pre-eminent office of Lords 
Justices of Irleand. The selection was in itself an 
overt declaration of war to extermination ; and the 
justices unblushingly verified the fears of the peo- 
ple. They sedulously and successfully opposed any 
redress of grievances ; and, as if to fill the cup of 
bitterness to overflowing, " a letter was at this time 
intercepted, giving an account that a covenanting 
army was ready to come for Ireland, under the com- 
mand of General Lesley, to extirpate the Roman 
Catholics of Ulster, and leave the Scots sole posses- 
sors of the province. It was confidently averred, that 
Sir John Clotworthy, who well knew the designs of 
the faction that governed in the House of Commons 
of England, had declared there in a speech, that the 
conversion of the Papists in Ireland was only to be 
effected by the Bible in one hand, and the sword in 
the other. Mr. Pym gave out that they would not 
leave a priest in Ireland ; and Sir William Parsons to 
the like effect, out of a strange weakness or detestable 
policy, positively asserted before many witnesses at 
a public entertainment in Dublin, that, within a 
twelvemonth, no Catholic should be seen in Ire- 
land."* 

Impelled by the more imminent dangers that me- 
naced them, the Irish of Ulster rose in arms on the 

* Carte's Life of Ormonde, vol, i. p. 235. 



THOMAS FLEMING. 3Q9 

memorable 23rd of October, 1641, soon after which 
the Roman Catholics of the Pale, threatened as they 
were with a community of destruction, and rendered 
the more apprehensive by the total denial of protec- 
tion or confidence, were compelled, as in their own 
defence, to submit to, and ultimately coalesce with, 
the insurgents. " The decision of fortune, and the 
prerogative of victory, have stamped this unsuccessful 
effort with the name of rebellion ; the malignity of 
party has blackened it into a conspiracy to massacre 
the Protestants, without distinction of sex or age, of 
birth or condition. The impartiality of history must 
urge, that, if allegiance and protection are mutual 
and reciprocal duties, if the maintenance of civil and 
religious liberty be obligatory on every individual of 
the State, if self-preservation be a fair motive for 
resistance, the struggle of the Irish in 1641, for ex- 
istence and toleration, was a just and lawful exertion, 
warranted by the first law of nature and the original 
compact of society."* The author of the learned 
and talented work 3 from which this extract is taken, 
proceeds in a luminous and graphic style to illustrate 
the causes that led to this fomented civil war. It 
seems here, however, only necessary to adopt his con- 
clusion, which cannot be better conveyed than in his 
own words : " Religious rancour has ascribed the 
insurrection to the intrigues and influence of the 
Roman Catholic clergy; Mr. Carte insinuates the 
charge, his pride of candour and want of proof con- 



* O'Conor's Hist, of the Irish Catholics, p. 33. 



400 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

fine him to inuendos and suspicions; the zeal of 
modern writers precipitates them into criminations 
and invectives against the bishops of this period, not 
warranted by a single fact, and disproved by most 
authentic documents ; that foreign influence had no 
share in fomenting the insurrection, that the Catholic 
bishops were not privy to the schemes of the original 
promoters, that they were not admitted to their meet- 
ings, appears from Lord Maguire's Narrative, from 
Castlehaven's Memoirs, from the silence of Owen 
O'Conolly, the informer. The clergy continued passive 
sharers in the general desolation until March, 1642, 
when the shocking barbarities of Sir Charles Coote 
on those of their order, when the eagerness of the 
English parliament for the blood of the seven priests, 
when the violation of the laws of nations in dragging 
their fellow-missionaries from the sanctuary of the 
foreign ambassadors' palaces, and the avowed deter- 
mination to extirpate their religion and flocks, left 
them no alternative but resistance or resignation to the 
exterminating sword." 

Archbishop Fleming could not long remain inac- 
tive ; and may, indeed, be supposed the most inces- 
santly provoked of all the sufferers, as the focus of 
intolerance and the artillery of destruction were within 
the heart of his diocese. At the close of December, 
1641, he received the intelligence of the king's 
speech, wherein Charles enjoined his parliament, " by 
all that was or could be dear to them or him, that, 
laying aside all disputes, they should go on cheerfully 
and speedily for the reducing of Ireland." By pro- 



THOMAS FLEMING. 401 

clamation of the 1st of January following, the same 
monarch denounced these detestable traitors, who had 
robbed, despoiled, massacred, and imprisoned " his 
good subjects of the British nation and Protestants in 
Ireland ;" and required his lord deputy and his lieu- 
tenant-general there, " to prosecute the said rebels and 
traitors with fire and sword, as persons unworthy of 
any mercy or favour. " In a few days afterwards, the 
Common Council of London petitioned the crown, to 
relieve the Protestants of Ireland " from the progress 
of the bloody rebellion, fomented and acted by the 
Papists and their adherents," a prayer to which his 
Majesty cordially responded, while he further assured 
both houses of parliament, that a proclamation should 
issue, requiring all Romish priests to quit the king- 
dom ; and pledged himself " in the word of a king, 
that if any should be apprehended after that time, 
he would grant no pardon to any such without consent 
of his parliament ;" even adding, that " he would not 
refuse to venture his own person in the war in Ire- 
land, if his parliament should think it convenient for 
the reduction of that miserable kingdom." Imme- 
diately afterwards the Lords and Commons of England 
voted the confiscation of two millions and a half of 
profitable lands, to be equally taken out of the rebels 
possessions in the four provinces of Ireland, and dis- 
tributed to those who should aid in their reduction, 
his Majesty fully consenting thereto. This succes- 
sion of denunciations might have justified Archbishop 
Fleming, in taking an earlier position in the troubled 
politics of the time ; but he felt that was an arena, 

2 D 



402 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

which a divine should avoid, as long as there was a 
neutral spot on which his foot could rest; nor was 
it until the memorable parliamentary declaration of 
March, 1641, effectually excluded even the smallest 
tendency of royal mercy to his community, that this 
archbishop selected the Reverend Joseph Everard, to 
appear as his proxy at the synod of the Roman Ca- 
tholic clergy, which met at Kilkenny in May, 1642. 

The acts of this remarkable assembly are given 
at full by Borlase, in his History of the Irish In- 
surrection, and may be thus briefly but fairly stated. 
All its members agreed in declaring the war in 
Ireland to be against sectaries, and chiefly puritans, 
for the defence of the Catholic religion, the main- 
tenance of the prerogative and royal rights of the 
king and queen, the safety of the royal issue, the 
conservation of the liberties and rights of Ireland, 
and the defence of their own lives and properties, 
and therefore, on such information of its objects, de- 
clared it to be just and lawful ; adding, however, 
that, " if some of the Catholics be found to proceed 
out of some particular and unjust title, covetousness, 
cruelty, revenge, or hatred, or any such unlawful pri- 
vate intentions, they are declared therein grievously to 
sin, and therefore worthy to be punished and re- 
strained with ecclesiastical censures, if, advised there- 
of, they do not amend/ ' The members further 
deprecated any credence being given to letters or 
proclamations published in the king's name, " until 
it be known, in a national council by its agents, 
whether they truly proceed from the king, left to 



THOMAS FLEMING. 403 

his own freedom." They directed that " all Irish 
peers, magistrates, and noblemen," should be united 
by an oath of association, and denounced sentence of 
excommunication against all, who should forsake the 
union or assist the enemy, or who should, " from the 
beginning of the present war, invade the possessions 
of any Catholic or any Irish Protestant, not adver- 
sary to this cause, or detain any such possessions." 
They forbade all distinctions and differences "be- 
tween provinces, cities, towns, or families ;" directed 
that in every province a council of clergy and laity 
should be constituted, and defined its constitution as 
also that of the general council ; arranged the mode 
of " embassage to foreign nations ;" ordered that an 
exact inventory should be kept in every province, of 
" the murders, burnings, and other cruelties com- 
mitted by the Puritan enemies, with a quotation of 
place, day, cause, manner, and persons, and other 
circumstances subscribed by one of public authority," 
and that " faithful and sworn messengers should be 
appointed in every parish" to report same ; prescribed 
" that the ordinaries of every place, the preachers, con- 
fessors, parish priests, and other churchmen, should 
endeavour to see perfect peace and charity observed 
between provinces, counties, cities, and families, as the 
obligation of this union requireth ;" that goods re- 
covered from the enemy should be restored to their 
rightful owners ; that " all those who murder, dis- 
member, or grievously strike, and all thieves, unlawful 
spoilers, robbers of any goods, extorters, together with 
all such as favour, receive, or any ways assist them, 

2 d2 



404 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 






be excommunicated, and so remain" until amend- 
ment and satisfaction. They also recommended that 
ambassadors should be sent to the Kings of France 
and Spain, to the Emperor and the Pope, " and 
those to be of the Church prelates, or one of the 
nobility, and a lawyer." This interesting document 
is signed by the Roman Catholic hierarchy as fol- 
lows: 



Hugh, Archbishop of Armagh. 
Thomas, Archbishop of Cashel. 
Malachy, Archbishop of Tuam. 
David, Bishop of Ossory. 
Boetius, Bishop of Elphin. 



Patrick, Bishop of Waterford 
and Lismore. 

Roche, Bishop of Kildare. 

John, Bishop of Clonfert. 

Emer, Bishop of Down and 
Connor. 

Joseph Everard, Proxy of the Archbishop of Dublin. 
Doctor John Creagh, Proxy of the Bishop of Limerick. 
David Bourke and William O'Connell, Proxies of the Bishop 

of Emly. 
Donat O'Tiernan, Proxy of the Bishop of Killaloe. 
Doctor Denis Harty, Dean of Killaloe. 
Doctor Michael Hacket, Vicar-General of Waterford. 
William Devereux, Vicar-General of Ferns. 
Thomas Roche, Vicar-General of Ossory. 
Luke Archer, Abbot of Holy Cross. 
Anthony de Rosario, Vicar-General of the Dominicans, 
Robert Nugent, of the order of the Jesuits. 
Thadey Connold, Provincial for England. 
John Waring, Dean of Limerick. 
Patrick D'Arcy, Warden of Dublin. 
Thomas Strange, Warden of Waterford. 
Joseph Langton, Prior of Kilkenny. 
Thomas Tiernan, Warden of Dundalk. 
John Reilly, Warden of Kilkenny. 
Boetius Egnan, Warden of Buttevant. 
John Bourke, Archdeacon of Limerick 



TftOMAS FLEMING. 405 

On the conclusion of the synod the nobility and 
gentry, then resident in Kilkenny, united with the 
aforesaid clergy in framing an oath of association > 
and naming the members for the supreme council, 
which was formed on the model of a parliament 
of two houses; the upper composed of spiritual 
and temporal peers, the lower of two delegates 
sent by the counties and cities of Ireland. They 
had a president, (Lord Mountgarret,) a speaker, a 
preacher, a guard of honour, a mint, a press, &c. ; 
yet, with all this assumption of power and authority, 
the confederates anxiously laboured, if possible, to 
effectuate a cessation of arms. On the 19th of May 
they proposed it, again in the month of July, and a 
third time, before their general convention, in Octo- 
ber, (1642,) leaving certainly no doubt of their then 
having an anxious desire to terminate the horrors of 
a war, that had so desolated the country and destroyed 
thousands of both parties; but all expectations of 
peace and amnesty were banished, by a solemn decla- 
ration of the parliament sitting in Dublin, wherein, 
after reciting " that the religion now professed by 
the Church of Rome, which in fundamental points is 
anti-christian, hath of late years extraordinarily over- 
spread this kingdom,' ' and that great dishonour was 
*' plotted and enacted by titular bishops, abbots, 
Jesuits," &c, both houses agreed in petitioning his 
Majesty, that " the laws and statutes of force in this 
kingdom against recusants and all others of the Po- 
pish pretended religion, in all parts of this kingdom 
where the laws do or may run, and for suppressing 



406 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

the usurped power and jurisdiction of the see of 
Rome, and particularly in the city of Dublin, which 
is now the city of refuge for most of the distressed 
and despoiled Protestants of this kingdom," might 
be effectively put in execution ; and that such other 
laws and provisions should be passed, as might give 
hopeful and comfortable assurance to the suppliants 
and their posterity, and to all others of the Protestant 
religion, who are or shall be in this kingdom."* 
Nor was the intention of the governing party in 
England less manifested in a proclamation, purporting 
to emanate from the king then holding his court at 
York, wherein it was avowed that the laws against 
Popish recusants should be put in due execution ; that 
no Papists should be countenanced in any employment 
or trust, and that no Popish recusant, refusing to take 
the oaths of allegiance, &c. should be permitted to 
serve in the army, &c. 

In such a crisis of affairs, Doctor Fleming felt 
himself obliged to participate in person in the opera- 
tions of the confederates at Kilkenny, and thereupon 
appointed the celebrated Doctor Edmund Reilly, to fill 
the station of vicar-general in his diocese during his ab- 
sence. This object of his selection had been a parish 
priest within that district, subsequently sojourned at 
Louvain, studying divinity with the Jesuits, and the 
canon law under the jurists ; and, on his return, hav- 
ing a strong recommendation from Father Thomas 
Fleming, eldest son of the Lord Slane, who had 

* Carte's Ormonde, vol, i. p. 331 „ 



THOMAS FLEMING. 407 

exchanged his barony for a cloister, received the ap- 
pointment alluded to, but which he had neither pru- 
dence nor ability to sustain. The acts of this period 
of his life were all of a violent political tendency ; 
distrusting the sincerity of Ormonde, he joined in 
every uproar against cessation of hostilities and every 
religious cry against peace with the king. 

Very different was the conduct of his metropoli- 
tan, who sat in the supreme council as one of the 
members for Leinster. On the 20th of June, 1643, 
Archbishop Fleming and the Archbishop of Tuam 
were the only two prelates, who signed the commis- 
sion, authorizing Nicholas Viscount Gormanston, Sir 
Lucas Dillon, Sir Robert Talbot, and others, to treat 
with the Marquis of Ormonde for the cessation of 
arms. In the ensuing month the arrival of Father 
Scarampa, as minister from the Pope, with supplies 
of money and ammunition, interposed and asserted that 
foreign influence, which ultimately defeated all the 
measures of the confederates. Nevertheless, in the 
following October, Doctor Fleming, with two other 
bishops and six laymen, signed a letter to the lords 
justices, ratifying and confirming the articles of ces- 
sation concluded by the commissioners, " hoping, in 
the quiet of that time assigned for it, by the benefit of 
the access which his Majesty is graciously pleased to 
afford us, to free ourselves from those odious calumnies 
wherewith we have been branded, and to render 
ourselves worthy of favour by some acceptable service, 
suiting the expression we have often made, and the 
real affections and zeal we have to serve his Majesty ;" 



408 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

but, complaining bitterly at the same time of the in- 
fractions of the cessation committed by the Scots, 
" who not long since came over in great numbers 
into this kingdom, and, by the slaughter of many in- 
nocents, without distinction of age or sex, have pos- 
sessed themselves of very large territories in the 
North." In July, 1644, he was present at the ge- 
neral assembly at Kilkenny, when the oath of associa- 
tion was agreed upon, whereby every confederate 
swore to bear true faith and allegiance to the king 
and his heirs, to maintain his and their prerogatives, the 
power and privileges of the parliament of this realm, 
the fundamental laws of Ireland, the free exercise of 
the Roman Catholic faith and religion, and to obey 
the orders and decrees of the supreme council. 

The before mentioned Father Scarampa remained, 
in the discharge of his commission at Kilkenny, until 
November, 1645, when John Baptist Rinuccini, 
Archbishop of Fermo, arrived in Ireland, in the cha- 
racter of Apostolic Nuncio extraordinary, and, on the 
12th of that month, presented himself with his cre- 
dentials to the confederates there, announcing the 
object of his mission, while he protested against the 
inference that he came to excite the Catholic inha- 
bitants of this kingdom against their king, and sig- 
nified " that nothing more agreeable to the supreme 
Pontiff could take place, than that the confederates in 
Ireland, having recovered the free exercise of their 
religion, should observe due subjection, service, and 
reverence to his Serene Majesty, though not a Ca- 
tholic." The conduct of the emissary was, however, 



THOMAS FLEMING. 409 

fatally at variance with this fair and moderate repre» 
sentation of his commission, and, on the first vital 
discussion, his headstrong, intemperate, and unautho- 
rized policy led to the ruin of the cause he espoused. 
" The cessation of arms, which had been concluded 
between Ormonde and the supreme council, was re- 
ceived with general joy by the confederate nobility 
and the greatest and best part of the clergy : but the 
nuncio and General Owen O'Neill, who afterwards 
drew over General Preston to his views, rejected it ; 
the former, because there was no provision made for 
the free exercise of the Catholic religion, without 
which the confederates, in the nuncio's view of the 
case, were engaged by their oath of association never 
to conclude a peace ; and the latter, on the same ac- 
count, and also because no stipulation was made for 
restoring him and his numerous followers to their 
forfeited lands in Ulster. The nuncio further al- 
leged, that the commissioners, who had concluded the 
peace, had not, as they were bound by their instruc- 
tions, insisted on the repeal of the penal statutes 
against the Roman Catholic religion. The confede- 
rates, however, adhered to the cessation, and, with 
the leave of Ormonde, sent over seven persons of 
rank to his Majesty to treat with him for a permanent 
peace. They reached his Majesty on the 23rd of 
March, 1645, and the king agreed to all the terms 
proposed by them, except those by which they claimed 
the free exercise of their religion, and the quiet 
enjoyment of the ecclesiastical property then actually 
possessed by them. The concession of these would. 



410 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

his Majesty observed, irritate all the Protestants in 
the three kingdoms against him. He therefore or- 
dered the commissioners to return to the council and 
treat with Ormonde on this point. Soon afterwards 
the Earl of Glamorgan, a Roman Catholic and con- 
nected by his marriage with the house of O'Brien, 
attended at Kilkenny, accredited, as he said, by his 
Majesty to treat with the supreme council. On the 
25th of August, 1645, articles of peace were signed 
by the earl and the supreme council, containing an 
express stipulation that the Catholics should enjoy 
the free exercise of their religion, and retain all the 
churches then in their possession and the property 
belonging to them. It was intended that this treaty 
should be kept a secret, till a more favourable combina- 
tion of circumstances would remove the objection to 
its publication ; but accident brought it to light, and 
the monarch then disavowed the powers under which 
Glamorgan had professed to act. A new treaty was 
therefore entered into with Ormonde. It was signed 
on the 28th of March, 1646, but appears not to have 
been delivered till the 29th of the following June. 
(See Carte's Life of Ormonde, vol. i. p. 574.) It 
contained no stipulation for the free exercise of the 
Catholic religion, or the enjoyment of ecclesiastical 
property; these were to be the subject of a future 
arrangement, and to be allowed in the mean time by 
connivance. The Pope himself felt the necessity, 
which induced the supreme council to submit to such 
terms. Discoursing with Mr. Richard Bellings, on 
what had passed between his Majesty and the depu- 



THOMAS FLEMING. 411 

ties to him from the council, his Holiness observed, 
that it was not to be wondered at that his Majesty 
should think it unsafe to consent to the insertion of 
the contested article, as this would alienate from him 
so many of his adherents."* 

The nuncio was nevertheless unchangeable, and, 
in the full indulgence of his feelings, he assembled 
at Waterford "such of the Irish bishops and other 
ecclesiastics as were most under his influence, on pre- 
tence of forming a synod to settle ecclesiastical 
matters ; but with more earnest they took the peace 
into consideration, and, by a public instrument signed 
by them on the 12th of August, 1646, declared their 
dissent therefrom. "f The second signature to this 
document is that of Archbishop Fleming ; but he is 
said to have declared, that he subscribed it against his 
own opinion, and solely in compliance with the earnest 
wishes of the nuncio ; J and in truth in three days 
afterwards, as if desirous to qualify his intention in 
that protest, he, conjointly with the Roman Catholic 
Archbishop of Cashel and the Bishop of Elphin, 
wrote, in the name of the congregation of the clergy, 
a letter to the queen, in which they said they disliked 
the peace, because all things were thereby referred to 
the pleasure of the king; " to which," add they, 
" we would readily submit, if he were not environed 
on all sides with the enemies of our religion, and at 



* Butler's Historical Memoirs of the Catholics, vol. ii. p. 453, &c. 
t Butler's Hist. Mem. of the Catholics, vol, ii. p. 456. 
| O'Conor's Hist. Addr. Part 1, p. 146. 



412 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

such a distance from your Majesty." He was then 
in the hands of the Scots, a circumstance which might 
well justify the alteration in Doctor Fleming's policy. 
The nuncio, after this meeting in Waterford, joined 
Preston and O'Neill, proceeded to Kilkenny ; im- 
prisoned the leaders of the council ; appointed in its 
place another body, of which himself was to be pre- 
sident ; assumed the government of the kingdom ; 
excommunicated all who were instrumental in con- 
cluding the peace, and all who should afterwards 
adhere to, or promote it ; by all which acts he effected 
more towards the ruin of the cause he espoused, than 
the machinations of its bitterest enemies could ac- 
complish. His wayward conduct divided the con- 
federates into two parties, who by quick degrees 
became more exasperated against each other, than 
they were against the common enemy. " I loved the 
nuncio," says Lynch, (Archdeacon of Tuam, and 
the learned author of Cambrensis Eversus,*) "and 
revere his memory, but it is most certain, that the 
first cause of our woe and the beginning of our ruin 
were produced by his censures. The day, on which 
they were fulminated, should not be in benediction ; 
to the Irish it was most disastrous, and should there- 
fore be noticed with black, ranked among the inaus- 
picious days, and devoted to the furies." 

At the close of October, in the same year, (1646,) 
Rinuccini, in company with Preston and O'Neill, 
and an army of 16,000 foot, and 1600 horse, advanced 
to Dublin ; and, on the 2nd of November, sent his 
proposals of accommodation to the Marquis of Or- 



THOMAS FLEMING. 413 

monde; but his Excellency now firmly refused to 
agree to them. The Marquis, however, and the 
council, being doubtful how the Catholics of Dublin 
might behave in case the city was assaulted by such 
an army, fighting under a title of so specious a cause 
and under the authority of so extraordinary a minis- 
ter of the holy see, put two questions to those of the 
Catholic clergy who resided in that city. 1st, whe- 
ther, if the nuncio should proceed to excommunicate 
the adherents to the peace then lately made, the 
excommunication would be void ; and 2nd, whether, 
if the city should be besieged by the direction of the 
nuncio, the Catholics might lawfully resist the siege 
or assault. The clergy so applied to answered una- 
nimously, that the excommunication would be void 
and the resistance lawful.* His Excellency after- 
wards entered into a negotiation with general Pres- 
ton, but mutual distrust prevented its execution on 
either side; upon this the Marquis, with more success 
as probably more seriousness, treated with the cove- 
nanters ; the terms were concluded, and Ormonde 
soon afterwards gave up to their commissioners all 
the forces under his command, the sword of state and 
the other insignia of government ; for which services 
he received, from the usurping powers, a large sum of 
money and permission to hold his estates discharged 
from all debts upon them. " Mr. Carte," says Mr. 
Matthew 0'Conor,f "endeavours to palliate this 



* Curry's Hist. Review, B. vii. c. 12. 
t Hist, of the Irish Catholics, p. 62. 



414 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

treachery, by zeal for the Protestant religion and the 
English interest ; the plain meaning of which is, that 
Ormonde preferred the subjugation of Ireland by 
republican and regicide Protestants, to the dominion 
of its lawful sovereign connected with the toleration 
of the Catholic religion. '* About the end of July, 
1647, by order of the parliament, he departed from 
Ireland, immediately after which General Preston 
was totally defeated, at Dungan's Hill near Trim, by 
Jones, the parliamentary governor of Dublin, aud the 
flower of the Munster confederates was slaughtered 
at Knocknaness. 

Although these calamities made their full impres- 
sion on the more temperate of the Catholics, and 
urged them yet the more to seek peace for their 
bleeding country, the nuncio continued outrageous 
and obstinate in opposing such a measure; and, on 
this occasion, he certainly had the full support of 
Archbishop Fleming, in whose estimation a peace 
with the parliamentary leader differed very essentially 
from that, which he would have formerly sanctioned 
with Ormonde ; his signature, accordingly, appears 
amongst those of the ten Roman Catholic prelates, 
who, on the 27th of April, 1648, signed a protest 
against the cessation then meditated with Jones, and, 
on the 2nd of May, five of these ecclesiastics, con- 
jointly with the Bishops of Dromore and Clonfert, 
signed another act delegating their power to the 
Nuncio, Archbishop Fleming, and the Bishops of 
Clogher, Killalla, and Limerick, to do in their ab- 
sence what themselves might do in matters of religion, 



THOMAS FLEMING. 415 

particularly in regard of the declaration against the 
cessation, authorizing them to confirm that instrument 
by ecclesiastical censures, ratifying all that they 
should do, and empowering the nuncio to substitute 
such persons as he pleased in place of those that 
might be absent.* About the same time, Edmund 
Reilly, before mentioned, was removed by Archbishop 
Fleming from the vicar-generalship of this diocese, and 
the Rev. Laurence Archbold was appointed thereto.f 
Soon afterwards the Earl of Inchiquin, who, till that 
time, had been an active partisan of the parliament, 
being dissatisfied with its proceedings, began to treat 
with the confederates. The nuncio, as usual, opposed 
the treaty, but it proceeded, and an agreement for a 
cessation of arms and mutual assistance was ultimately 
signed. Rinuccini, thereupon, caused the declaration 
of the clergy against the old cessation to be affixed 
to the doors of the Cathedral of Kilkenny, but it was 
immediately pulled down. At this crisis the nuncio 
summoned Archbishop Fleming and the prelates 
of Killala and Limerick to attend him ; they, how- 
ever, not only declined coming, and recommended 
pacific measures, but they further urged, that, Lord 
Inchiquin having granted more advantageous terms 
in the cessation then under consideration, than had 
been at first suggested or were expected when the 
original declaration was framed, therefore that de- 
claration should not be intended as hostile to the 
convention now made, but to one formerly represent- 

* Carte's Life of Ormonde, vol. ii. p. 33. 
t Walsh's Remonstrance, p. 608. 



416 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

ed by the nuncio, as about to be concluded on terms 
most disadvantageous to their religion. Failing to 
obtain the concurrence of this prelate and of the 
aforesaid bishops, the nuncio substituted other co- 
operation, according to the power injudiciously con- 
ferred upon him, and pronounced an excommunication 
against all, who adhered to, or favoured the cessation 
with Inchiquin, interdicting even the performance of 
divine offices in all cities, towns, or places, that re- 
ceived the treaty. In ten days afterwards the supreme 
council appealed in form against his censures, " and 
were supported in that appeal by two archbishops, 
twelve bishops, and all the secular clergy in their 
dioceses; by the whole orders of the Jesuits and Car- 
melites, many of the Augustinians and Dominicans, 
above five hundred of the Franciscan order alone, and 
by the most regular, strict, exemplary, and learned 
religious of these orders, who, by their number, zeal, 
learning, industry, and pains-taking in preaching 
and otherwise, quite defeated the nuncio's measures 
and worsted his party."* Archbishop Fleming, with 
a singular vaccillation of character, or awe of the 
nuncio, did not enrol himself amongst these honest 
remonstrants. On the contrary, De Burgof preserves 
a letter, which he wrote " from his bed in the con- 
vent of St. Francis, Dublin," to the Roman Catholic 
Bishop of Ossory, in which he exhorts and, to the ex- 
tent of his metropolitan authority, commands him to 



* Carte's Life of Ormonde, vol. ii. p. 34. 
f Hib. Dominicana, p. 897. 



THOMAS FLEMING. 417 

enforce Rinuccini's interdict, within the cities and 
towns of his diocese. 

Although the general history of Ireland at this 
period, unless in necessary connexion with the life of 
Archbishop Fleming, is not a legitimate subject for 
these pages, yet a few concluding remarks seem ne- 
cessary for the exposition of Rinuccini's calamitous 
career. Ormonde, from the time of his departure 
from Dublin until September, 1648, had remained in 
France. On the 21st of that month he sailed for 
Ireland from Havre, and on the 29th reached Cork. 
" He was received with great demonstrations of joy, 
and soon after his landing, being then interested in 
the re- establishment of the royal authority, he signi- 
fied to the supreme council sitting at Kilkenny, that 
he was arrived with full powers to conclude a peace 
with the confederate Catholics, pursuant to the paper 
delivered to their agent at St. Germain's, and which 
granted them their own terms. On the receipt of the 
message the supreme council invited the Marquis to 
Kilkenny, into which city he made his entry with 
great splendour. On the 1 7th of January, 1 648, a 
peace between his Majesty and the confederates was 
proclaimed, and the English and Irish forces were 
placed under the command of the Marquis. By the 
terms of the peace it was stipulated, that all the laws, 
which prevented the free exercise of the Catholic 
religion in Ireland, should be repealed, and that the 
Catholics should not be disturbed in the possession 
of their churches and church livings, till his Majesty, 
upon a full consideration of the decree respecting 

2 E 



418 ARCHBrSHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

them in parliament, should declare his further plea- 
sure. On the following day the assembly drew up 
several articles to be transmitted to the Pope, con- 
taining heavy accusations against the nuncio, and in- 
timated to his Holiness at the same time, the necessity 
of his immediately repairing to Rome to answer 
those articles."* Accordingly, on the ensuing 23rd 
of February, this emissary bade farewell to a coun- 
try, which his intemperance had covered with wi- 
dows and orphans — ruin and rancour. " It should 
be observed," writes Mr. Charles Butler, " that his 
proceedings were contrary to the instructions, which 
he had received from the court of Rome. By 
these he had been directed, in case a peace were 
made, to do nothing to indicate that he either ap- 
proved or disliked it. Doctor Curry produces rea- 
sons which render it probable, that the peace made by 
the confederates with Ormonde was not displeasing 
to the Pope, and Mr. Carte mentions, that soon after 
his infraction of the peace the nuncio received a 
reprimand from Rome, for having acted in this 
respect contrary to his instructions. On his return 
to that city he was received coldly by the Pope. 
His Holiness told him he had carried himself rashly 
in Ireland,f and exiled him to his diocese, where, by 
reason of the disastrous result of his nunciature, and 
the reception which he so met with at Rome, he was 
so deeply affected, that in a short time afterwards he 



* Butler's Memoirs of the Catholics, vol. ii. p. 459. 
t Borlase's History of the Rebellion, f. 246. 



THOMAS FLEMING. 419 

died of grief."* De Burgo, however, in his uncom- 
promising affection and reverence for Rinuccini, will 
not admit these reproaches to his memory ; but says 
he died in December, 1 653, and was buried in the 
cathedral of Fermo. 

During the greater part of the year 1649 Arch- 
bishop Fleming resided in his own diocese.f His 
better judgment and prudence were no longer over- 
ruled by the nuncio's presence, and therefore, when 
the congregation of the prelates of Ireland was held 
at Clonmacnoise on the 4th of December, 1649, 
Archbishop Fleming was one of those who signed 
the declaration there made, of oblivion of all former 
differences, and of brotherly affection and union for 
the future ; while, at the same time, in perfect con- 
sistence with his opposition to the peace with Jones, 
he was of those who subscribed the decree, that a 
manifesto should issue from them, " letting the peo- 
ple know how vain it is to expect from the common 
enemy commanded by Cromwell, by authority from 
the rebels of England, any assurance of their reli- 
gion, lives, or fortunes ;" and enjoining amity, " as 
the chief means to preserve the nation, against the 
extirpation and destruction of their religion and for- 
tunes resolved on by the enemy, and manifesting 
their detestation against all divisions between either 
provinces or families, or between old English or old 
Irish, or any of the English or Scotch adhering to 

* Butler's Memoirs of the Catholics, vol. ii. p. 460. 
t De Burgo, Hib. Dom. p. 489. 

2e2 



420 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Ills Majesty ;" with other resolutions of a similar ten- 
dency, as given in full in the Vindicice Catholicorum 
Hibernice, (p. 270, &c) 

The execution of King Charles opened vistas of 
yet more gloomy days, nor was the disheartening 
prospect brightened, when, " on the invitation of the 
Scottish covenanters, Charles the Second left Breda, 
and on the 23rd of June, 1650, arrived in Scotland. 
Before he landed he was obliged to sign both the 
national and the solemn covenant, and in two months 
afterwards he issued a declaration, that he would have 
no enemies but the enemies of the covenant, that he 
did detest and abhor all Popery, superstition, and 
idolatry, together with prelacy, resolving not to tole- 
rate, much less to allow, those in any part of his do- 
minions, and to endeavour the extirpation thereof to 
the utmost of his power. He pronounced the peace 
with the confederates to be null and void, and added, 
that he was convinced in his conscience of the sinful- 
ness and unlawfulness of it. The afflicting intelligence 
of this conduct of his Majesty soon reached the con- 
federates, and they suspected, not without ground, 
that the Marquis of Ormonde had advised it."* In 
consequence of these occurrences, an episcopal meet- 
ing was fixed to be held in August at Jamestown, 
previous to which, on the 24th of July, Doctor Flem- 
ing and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam 
gave intimation thereof to the Marquis of Ormonde 
by letter, and stated, that, " if his Excellency would 

* Butler's Memoirs of the Catholics, vol. ii. p. 461. 



THOMAS FLEMING. 421 

think fit to send one or more persons to make proposals 
for the safety of the whole nation, theyshouldnot want 
willingness to prepare a good answer."* To this invi- 
tation the marquis paid no attention, and, on the 12th 
of August, 1650, the prelates assembled as appointed, 
drew up an excommunication against all his adherents, 
and, on the 23rd of the same month, signed the me- 
morable declaration, grounded on the alleged breach 
of faith of the marquis, during his government sub- 
sequent to the peace of 1648, and yet more on the 
king's disavowal of the peace, published in Scotland, 
and his declaration, whereby he i( acknowledged his 
sorrow for making peace with the Papists, and re- 
called all the commissions granted by him in Ireland. 
The reader, who may be interested in the inquiry, 
will find in Walsh's Remonstrance much of the his- 
tory of this subject ; here it must suffice to say, that 
the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ferns, the celebrated 
Nicholas French, signed both the excommunication 
and the declaration, as proxy for Archbishop Fleming, 
although, as Lord Clarendon observes in his " His- 
tory of the Rebellion," " All the sober professors of 
the Catholic religion abhorred those proceedings, as 
also those which subsequently took place at Loughrea, 
and most of the commissioners of trust or the prin- 
cipal nobility remained firm in their particular affection 
and duty to the king, and in their submission to the 
authority of his lieutenant." 

On the 5th of October, 1650, this prelate, in per- 

* O'Conor's Hist. Addr. Part 2, p. 386, 



422 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

son at Galway, signed the document authorizing Dr. 
Nicholas French, Bishop of Ferns, and Hugh Roch- 
fort, Esq., to treat and agree with any Catholic 
prince, state, republic, or person, as they might deem 
expedient for the preservation of the Catholic religion 
and nation, and promising to ratify the same as far as 
in him and his colleagues lay; but, on the 15th of 
November following, the Catholic clergy, having met 
at Loughrea by the appointment of the Marquis of 
Ormonde, declared and protested of their own accord, 
" that by their aforesaid excommunication and de- 
claration at Jamestown, they had no other aim but 
the preservation of their religion and people ; and 
that they did not purpose making any encroachment 
upon his Majesty's authority or the liberty of their 
fellow-subjects; confessing that it did not belong 
to their jurisdiction so to do." The imbecility, 
treachery, or apathy of Ormonde, however, precipi- 
tated the catastrophe of his country's sufferings ; 
Cromwell and confiscation succeeded, and all the 
well known persecutions of the period. 

In 1652, the English parliament passed an act 
" for the settlement of Ireland," in which all Jesuits, 
priests, &c, and a number of noblemen and gentry, 
therein enumerated, were excepted from pardon for 
life or estate, while all persons of the Popish religion, 
who had resided in Ireland since 1841, and not ma- 
nifested their constant affection to the commonwealth, 
were subjected to the forfeiture of their estates to the 
commonwealth, two-thirds of the quantity thereof to 
be assigned to them in such other part of Ireland 



THOMAS FLEMING. 423 

as should seem fit to the parliament. The proscrip- 
tion was most cordially responded to by the Irish 
executive. The parliamentary commissioners at 
Dublin further published a proclamation, wherein 
the act of the 27th of Elizabeth was made of force in 
Ireland, and ordered to be most strictly put in execu- 
tion. By this act, " every Romish priest discovered 
in the country was deemed guilty of rebellion, and 
sentenced to be hanged until he was dead ; then to 
have his head taken off and his body cut in quarters, 
his bowels to be drawn out and burned, and his head 
fixed upon a pole in some public place." The 
punishment of those who entertained a priest was, 
by the same act, confiscation of their goods and chat- 
tels and the ignominious death of the gallows. 
This edict was thereupon renewed, with the additional 
cruelty of making even the private exercise of the 
Roman catholic religion a capital crime ; and again 
repeated in 1657? with the same penalty of confisca- 
tion and death to all those who, knowing where a 
priest was, did not make discovery thereof to the go- 
vernment. Of the strict execution of these barbarous 
edicts many shocking examples were daily seen among 
these unhappy people, insomuch that, to use the words 
of a contemporary writer and eye witness ; " neither 
the Israelites were more cruelly persecuted by 
Pharaoh ; nor the innocent infants by Herod ; nor the 
Christians by Nero or any of the other Pagan ty- 
rants, than were the Roman Catholics of Ireland at 
that fatal juncture, by these savage commissioners.' 5 * 

* Morrison's Thren. p. 14. 



424 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

A Latin manuscript of the year 1653, entitled, " Af- 
flictio Catholieorum Hiberniae," and yet preserved 
in the Irish convent of St. Isidore at Rome, thus 
describes the terrors of the visitation in Ireland. 
" The keen eyed vigilance of persecution has driven 
the Catholic laity into the country ; and the priests 
and monks scarcely presume to sleep even in the houses 
of their own people ; their life is warfare and earthly 
martyrdom ; they breathe as by stealth among the 
hills or in the woods, and not unfrequently in the 
abyss of bogs or marshes which their oppressors can- 
not penetrate ; yet hither flock congregations of 
poor Catholics, whom they refresh with the consola- 
tion of the sacraments, direct with the best advice, 
instruct in constancy of faith, and confirm in the 
endurance of the cross of the Lord. These things 
however, could not be effected without the knowledge 
of the heretics, who, in a simultaneous impulse, are 
hurried through the mountains and the woods, ex- 
ploring the retreats of the clergy ; and never was 
the chase of wild beasts more hot and bitter, than the 
rush of the priest-destroyers through the woods of 
Ireland, many of whom deem it the most grateful 
recreation to run down to the death those beasts of 
the woods, as they term the Catholic clergy." 

In the midst of these persecutions Archbishop 
Fleming sunk into the grave, but the evil destiny of 
his country was not to be appeased by such immola- 
tions. The annals of Ireland and of the civil wars, 
unjustly styled " rebellions," that desolated it from 
the days of Archbishop Fleming to those of Dean 



THOMAS FLEMING. 425 

Swift, too sadly evince the truth of this position, and 
the remarks of that great genius and patriot, the 
latter dignitary, afford the best exordium to this me- 
moir. " These insurrections," he remarks, " where- 
with the Irish Catholics are charged, from the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century to the great 
English rebellion, were occasioned by many oppres- 
sions they lay under ; they had no intention to intro- 
duce a new religion, but to enjoy the liberty of 
pursuing the old, the very same which their ancestors 
professed from the time that Christianity was first 
introduced into this island, which was by Catholics, 
but whether mingled with corruptions, as some pre- 
tend, doth not belong to the question. They had no 
design to change the government ; they never at- 
tempted to fight against, to imprison, or betray, to 
sell, to bring to a trial, or to murder their king. The 
schismatics acted by a spirit directly contrary; they 
united in a solemn league and covenant to alter the 
whole system of spiritual government established in 
all Christian nations, and of apostolic institution, con- 
cluding the tragedy with the murder of the king in 
cold blood ; and, upon mature deliberation, at the 
same time changing the monarchy into a common- 
wealth. The Catholics of Ireland in the great rebel- 
lion lost their estates for fighting in defence of their 
king ; the schismatics, who cut off the father's head, 
forced the son to fly for his life, and overturned the 
whole ancient frame of government, religious and 
civil, obtained grants of those very estates which the 
Catholics lost in defence of the ancient constitution. 



426 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

many of which estates are at this day possessed by the 
posterity of those schismatics ; and thus they gained 
by their rebellion what the Catholics lost by their 
loyalty." 

Great as were the difficulties in upholding the 
hierarchy of the Established Church in Ireland, it 
was almost utterly impossible that the Roman Catholic 
could be represented. At the close of the year 1660 
there were but three prelates of that faith in Ireland : 
those of Armagh, Meath, and Kilmore, while this see 
and province were under the jurisdiction and control 
of James Dempsey, Vicar Apostolic and Capitulary 
of Kildare. Very soon after his appointment to this 
dignity, and at the earliest attainable opportunity 
after the Restoration, he was one of those who signed 
the document of the 1st of January, 1660, empower- 
ing the celebrated Father Walsh, on behalf of the 
Catholic clergy of Ireland, to attend his Majesty in 
their names, to congratulate him on his restoration, 
and to solicit the free exercise of their religion and 
the graces promised and confirmed to them in 1648 
by the Marquis of Ormonde. In the same capacity, 
Doctor Dempsey was one of the forty- five of the chief 
Catholic clergy, who, in 1663, promulgated the de- 
claration of the faculty of Sorbon and other univer- 
sities, to the effect, that it was not the Roman Catholic 
doctrine, that the Pope had any authority in temporal 
affairs over King Charles, and that they would oppose 
any who should assert such power.* Such is the more 

* Walsh's Remonstrance, p. 694, 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 427 

favourable construction which the celebrated Father 
Walsh would fain put upon an instrument of his own 
concocting : and in which, as well as in the character 
drawn of those who opposed this declaration, the au- 
thor of the Life of William the Third, as might be 
expected, fully agrees. 

" At this time," writes Harris, " the Roman Ca- 
tholics of Ireland were divided into violent parties, 
distinguished by the name of Remonstrants and Anti- 
Remonstrants ; the former were such of the nobility, 
gentry, and clergy, who had signed a remonstrance 
or profession of their allegiance to the King, and a 
resolution to obey him as their only chief governor in 
temporal matters; the anti-remonstrants w T ere those 
who held, that to give a recognition of their loyalty 
to their Sovereign, though in temporals only, was to 
withdraw something of their spiritual allegiance from 
the Pope ; in which principle they were upheld by the 
court of Rome ; and the Irish titular bishops had express 
orders from Cardinal Barberini to support the Anti- 
Remonstrants, even at the hazard of their mitres and 
lives. They had their rise here in the time of the 
nuncio, to whom and to Owen O'Neill they strictly 
adhered, and obstructed not only the peace made in 
1646 by the Marquis of Ormonde with the confede- 
rate Catholics, but that of 1648, and thereby kept 
their country in confusion. After the Restoration 
the loyal Irish drew up a formulary of their allegiance 
to the Crown in express and explicit terms, and em- 
powered Peter Walsh, a loyal and active Franciscan 
friar, to solicit subscriptions to it, which he procured 



428 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN, 

in some numbers ; but his endeavours, being opposed 
by the Anti- Remonstrants and rigid Papists, were 
greatly clogged, and he obtained the consent, or at 
least the connivance, of the Duke of Ormonde, then 
Lord Lieutenant, for calling a national synod of the 
Popish clergy at Dublin, in order to debate the 
matter and to come to some satisfactory conclusion. 
They assembled in June, 1666, but the ministers of 
the Pope interfered to prevent any accommodation, 
and the synod broke up in confusion."* 

Mr. Harris's statement is however greatly over- 
charged with the colouring of his own prejudices. 
The remonstrance in truth, as it then stood, contained 
expressions offensive to the court of Rome, and repug- 
nant at least to Catholic discipline, and it was there- 
fore rejected at the synod, but not on the principles 
misstated by Harris, nor was the assembly influenced 
by the Pope against any legitimate declaration of 
allegiance, nor did it break up in confusion. " The 
remonstrance was rejected as exceptionable in its 
language, and another substituted in its place, equi- 
valent to the former in every assurance of loyalty, 
and equally explicit in the constitutional fulness of 
civil principles, to which were added the foil owing- 
propositions : 6 1 . We do hereby declare that it is 
not our doctrine, that the Pope hath any authority in 
temporal affairs over our sovereign lord King Charles 
the Second ; yea, we promise we shall oppose them 
that will assert any power, either direct or indirect, 

* Harris's Life of William the Third, p. 99, 



ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 429 

over him in civil or temporal affairs. 2. That it is 
our doctrine, that our gracious King Charles the 
Second is so absolute and independent, that he ac- 
knowledged not, nor hath he in civil and temporal 
affairs any power above him under God, and this to 
be our constant doctrine, from which we shall never 
decline. 3. That it is our doctrine, that we subjects 
owe such natural and just obedience unto our King, 
that no power under any pretext whatever can either 
dispense with or free us thereof.' A protestation of 
loyalty, with the aforesaid propositions subjoined, 
signed by every member of the congregation, was 
delivered to Ormonde by two bishops, delegates from 
the synod, to be presented to his Majesty ; but this 
nobleman would receive no other remonstrance, than 
that contrived for his own purposes and advocated 
by his creature Walsh ; he consequently ordered the 
synod to disperse, and continued during the remain- 
der of his administration an unrelenting persecutor 
of the clergy."* 

In reference to Doctor Dempsey's administration 
of this province, it remains but to notice, that he held 
a synod in May, 1665, at Dublin, the principal canon 
of which provided for the publication of bans three 
times before the celebration of any marriages. 

* O'Conor's Hist, of the Irish Catholics, p. 101. 



430 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

PETER TALBOT. 
[Succ. 1669. Ob. 1680.] 

In 1669? Peter Talbot was at length promoted 
to the ecclesiastical superintendence of this province. 
He was the son of Sir William Talbot, and brother 
of the celebrated Colonel Talbot, whom James the 
Second created Earl of Tyrconnell, advanced to the 
Lieutenancy of Ireland, and subsequently yet more 
ennobled with a Dukedom. The subject of this 
memoir was born about the year 1620 ; early in 
life he was received into the society of Jesuits in 
Portugal, and, after studying philosophy and divi- 
nity amongst them, was admitted into holy orders 
at Rome ; from that city he returned to Portu- 
gal and afterwards removed to Antwerp, where he 
read lectures on moral theology and published " A 
Treatise of the Nature of Faith and Heresy ;" " A 
Catechism for Politicians, instructing them in Di- 
vine Faith and Moral Honesty ;" " The Nullity of 
the Protestant Church and its Clergy, "&c. At this 
period of his life, he is supposed to have been the 
person, who in 1656 reconciled Charles the Second, 
then at Cologne, to the Catholic religion, and that 
prince is reported to have sent him secretly to Ma- 
drid, to intimate to the court of Spain his conversion. 
He incurred, however, the displeasure of that monarch, 
by having, according to report, attended the funeral 
of Cromwell as one of the mourners, and joined 
Lambert in opposing General Monk's declaration. 



PETER TALBOT. 431 

The circumstance does not seem verified by any 
bettter evidence than that of a scandalous pamphlet 
before alluded to, wherein it is said, " several of his 
Majesty's subjects being in London upon the death of 
Oliver Cromwell, the usurper, who were more de- 
sirous to see his funeral solemnities, than to see him 
officiate in his tyrannical government, obtained leave 
to be at a friend's house at Westminster, to behold 
the celebration thereof. John King, then Dean of 
Tuam, a faithful subject of his Majesty, shewed to 
several of the spectators, saying, there goes Peter 
Talbot amongst the mourners in deep mourning, 
which had not these spectators seen, they would 
scarcely have believed that it had been he. At that 
time, it being the fashion for mourners not to cast 
off their mourning cloaks so soon as they do now-a- 
days, he was seen by several to walk in the same 
habit, with his cloak folded under his arm, for some 
months after this funeral, walking in the piazza 
of Covent Garden, and other of the streets of the 
city of London. Upon General Monk's rising in 
England to bring in our now gracious sovereign 
King Charles the Second into his throne, this said 
Peter Talbot went, in company with the then Gene- 
ral Lambert, riding to oppose the Duke of Albe- 
marle's designs ; for those, his good feats, the Pope 
made him titular Archbishop of Dublin."* With- 
out conceding the more censorious portion of this 
notice, it certainly is rendered more than probable 



* Foxes and Firebrands, p. 96, 



432 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

by some memorials of the period, that Talbot had 
been sent into England by the Pope, on the affairs 
of the Church during the commonwealth, and that 
he then became acquainted with most of the people 
in power, and was even intimate with Cromwell him- 
self, while it is yet more certain, that on the Restora- 
tion he fled the country, and never returned, until, 
upon the king's marriage with the Infanta of Portu- 
gal, he was appointed one of her chaplains, and, his 
vows as a Jesuit having been subsequently dispensed 
with, he was advanced to the archbishopric of Dub- 
lin in 1669 5 having been consecrated at Antwerp or 
Ghent on the second of May in that year. 

In the same year he landed at Skerries, as men- 
tioned at that locality in the " History of the County 
of Dublin ;" filled as it would appear, with the 
most confident hope of another restoration, yet 
dearer to his heart, that of the freedom, rank, and 
reverence of the Roman Catholic religion, an ob- 
ject which Harris says, "he w 7 as always forming 
designs and contriving schemes for advancing."* 
As far as those designs and schemes, if they are to be 
called such, could be advanced honourably, peaceably, 
and legitimately, the prelate certainly laboured for 
their consummation ; but how greatly he has been 
misrepresented as " a man of aspiring and restless 
spirit," and " a participator of political intrigues," 
will best appear from his works. 

On his arrival in the metropolis, he found an 



* Ware's Writers, p. 192. 



PETER TALBOT. 433 

assembly of the Catholic clergy there* sitting under 
the control of the primate ; Talbot immediately in- 
troduced himself amongst them, announcing that the 
king had appointed him to oversee them all, " where- 
upon the titular primate, Plunket, considering this 
an unwarranted assumption, desired to see the au- 
thority on which it was advanced, alleging, that if 
there was in fact such an authority, he would submit 
to it ; the other answered, that he had not it under 
the great seal ; to which Doctor Plunket replied, that 
the little seal would serve his turn, but, until one or 
other was produced, he would take care to oversee 
Talbot, and expected to be obeyed. " These arrogant 
pretensions of Talbot," adds Harris, " obliged Plun- 
ket to interpose his authority as primate, and 
to inhibit him to go to England, where, he pre- 
tended, his presence was necessary, with the object of 
preventing the success of Peter Walsh's solicitations 
to have the remonstrance put in force ; Plunket, 
otherwise a mild man, made him upon this occasion 
a sharp answer, ' that he had good grounds to believe 
there was no such matter, that he had the reputation 
of meddling too much in affairs of state, which was 
contrary to the canons and orders of the Pope,' and for 
that reason he inhibited him from going. Talbot 
was thereupon obliged to send to the nuncio at Brus- 
sels for a license of absence, under pretence of being 
required by his Majesty to attend him in England."* 
This unpleasant collision revived in the Catholic 
establishment that primatial question, which had been 

* Ware's Writers, p. 192. 

2 F 



434 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

terminated nearly fifty years before in the Protestant. 
Both archbishops appealed to Rome, where, as alleged 
by Doctor Plunket, and subsequently by Doctor 
Hugh M'Mahon, a decision was made in favour of 
Armagh ; and it was further ordained thereupon, 
that in the office of St. Patrick there should be in- 
serted the attestation ; " he, with the authority of the 
Roman pontiff, constituted Armagh the metropolitan 
of all the island." 

In the commencement of the following year Arch- 
bishop Talbot sojourned for a short time at Ghent, 
and in that interval published, in quarto, a Treatise of 
Religion and Government, immediately after which 
he returned to Ireland ; and when, in the May of the 
same year, (1670), Lord Berkeley was sworn Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland, Archbishop Talbot, imme- 
diately on his landing, waited upon him, was cour- 
teously received, and permitted to appear in his archie- 
piscopal character before the council, an indulgence 
without a precedent from the time of the Reforma- 
tion. " The Lord Berkeley," as Harris would warp 
his motives, " did not care for the man, and was in- 
censed at his impudent pretence to the king's autho- 
rity for overseeing the Irish clergy, but he was afraid 
of his interest with the Duke of Buckingham, who had 
newly recovered his power at court, and, therefore, 
thought fit to smother his resentment."* Imme- 
diately afterwards, the Anti-Remonstrants caused pro- 
vincial councils to be held throughout Ireland, and 

* Harris's Ware's Writers, p. 192. 



PETER TALBOT, 435 

diocesan synods within most of the sees, the great 
business of which was, to strengthen these religious 
principles, which the Remonstrants would have sacri- 
ficed to their loyalty, and to control the proceedings 
of the clergy, regular and secular, who had subscribed 
that remonstrance. Archbishop Talbot was one of 
the chief promoters of this inquiry and correction, 
and the most effective, by means of his brother's credit 
at court ; the Remonstrants of his diocese were, ac- 
cordingly, removed from their cures, and other pastors 
substituted, until the Duke of Ormonde, who always 
favoured the former, having laid the proceedings of 
their opponents before the king, his Majesty especially 
instructed Lord Berkeley to restrain what he termed 
" the irregular acts of the persecuting party." The 
viceroy was, however, necessarily more conversant 
with the true state of affairs, and declined any active 
interference in this commission. " Lord Berkeley 
was a man of probity and moderate principles, who 
substituted a mild and merciful administration for the 
unrelenting tyranny of oppressors; the penal sta- 
tutes of Elizabeth were relaxed, the public exercise 
of the Catholic religion allowed, its professors were 
admitted to all situations of trust and emolument, 
civil and military, to all franchises and corporations, 
to the rights and privileges of subjects, protected in 
their persons and properties, invested with political 
power, with shrievalties and magistracies to secure 
them against oppression and injustice. Under this 
system Ireland began to bloom and prosper, to re- 
cover from the miseries of the late war and the 

2 f 2 



436 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



- 



desolation of Cromwell ; arts and manufactures re- 
vived."* 

On the 30th of August, 1670, Archbishop Talbot 
held a synod in Dublin, the acts of which, yet extant, 
are perfectly innocent of any political tendency. The 
first and essential canon enforces the catechising of 
the people by their priests on every Sunday and holi- 
day, the others relate purely to matters of ecclesiastical 
discipline and the reservation of certain cases in con- 
fession. In July, 1671 j however, a document is al- 
leged by Archbishop King to have been found in 
Colonel Talbot's house, drawn up, as he supposes, by 
this prelate. It is given at length in the appendix 
to "The State of the Protestants of Ireland," (p. 41, 
&c.,) and, if it were in reality his composition, is ex- 
tremely creditable to the judgment and diplomacy of 
Archbishop Talbot. As, however, it runs to consi- 
derable length, and rather concerns civil than eccle- 
siastical rights, it seems sufficient to refer to it on this 
occasion, only stating, that it was just such a manly 
but moderate assertion of the rights of the Roman 
Catholics, as one of their prelates might well seek 
to effectuate, and as the benign influence of Lord 
Berkeley's administration would reasonably encou- 
rage. Had its projected measures been conceded, what 
a quantity of blood, of treasure, of brotherly love and 
kindly feeling had been spared to Ireland ? The Ca- 
tholic laity were, however, more craving in their de- 
mands ; they petitioned the king for a review of the 
Act of Settlement ; but while, by the influence of 

* O'Conor's Hist, of the Irish Catholics, p. 104. 



1 



PETER TALBOT. 437 

Ormonde in this country, neither the petitioners nor 
their counsel would be heard, the English parliament 
presented an address to his Majesty, entreating him 
to maintain the Acts of Settlement and Explanation ; 
they likewise besought him to give order, that no 
Papists should be admitted justices of the peace, she- 
riffs, coroners, or magistrates in Ireland ; and that all 
licenses to Papists for inhabiting within corporations 
should be recalled ; they likewise required, " that all 
Popish prelates, and others exercising ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction by the Pope's authority, particularly Pe- 
ter Talbot, pretended Archbishop of Dublin, should 
be commanded to depart from Ireland and all other 
his Majesty's dominions ; that all convents and semi- 
naries should be dissolved, and all secular priests ba- 
nished ; that Colonel Richard Talbot, assuming the 
title of agent of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, 
should be dismissed from all command, civil or mili- 
tary, and forbidden access to his Majesty's court; and 
lastly, that the chief governors of Ireland should have 
such orders and directions as might tend to encourage 
the English planters' and Protestant interest, and 
suppress the disorders of the Irish Papists."* Where- 
upon the king declared, that he was resolved to pre- 
serve the settlement of Ireland, and not to disturb 
any thing confirmed by the statutes enacted for that 
purpose. 

At the close of this year (Pith of March, 167U) 
Archbishop Talbot held a second synod in Dublin, 

* Leland's Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 482, &c. 



438 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

enforcing the publication of bans of marriages, and 
prohibiting, under pain of excommunication, any Ca- 
tholic, male or female, from contracting matrimony 
with the offspring of Jews, Turks, or Moors ; alli- 
ances which he further wholly interdicted any priest 
from solemnizing or promoting. At this period of 
his life he published in London, " A Confutation of 
the Principles of the Protestant Religion, as they 
are maintained by one Doctor Stillingfleet." Early 
in the following year, the liberal and enlightened 
Lord Berkeley was removed from the government 
of Ireland, and the bigoted Lord Essex substituted. 
The alteration was instantaneously evinced; a storm 
of persecution burst upon the Catholics, and Arch- 
bishop Talbot was at once marked out for proscrip- 
tion. The willing ear of the viceroy received his 
accusation, by which he was more especially charged 
with having sought, in concert with his brother Co- 
lonel Talbot and Sir Nicholas Plunkett, to introduce 
by sinister means Roman Catholics into the common 
council of the corporation of Dublin. Distrusting, 
as he well might, the impartiality, or even mercy, of 
those who should adjudicate on his merits, he re- 
nounced his country and hfs charge, and, after some 
studiously concealed wanderings, at length settled 
himself in sorrow, but safety, in the metropolis of 
France ; from which city he wrote, on the 2nd of May, 
1674, such a pastoral letter, addressed to those over 
whom he had presided in Ireland, and who could best 
estimate its veracity, as must convince the impartial 
historian, that the charges of disaffection and turbu- 



PETER TALBOT. 439 

lence, laid to his account, were but the unwholesome 
exhalations of the atmosphere which he sought to 
warm and brighten. 

It was addressed " to the Roman Catholics of 
Ireland, and particularly those of the city and diocese 
of Dublin, on the duty and comfort of suffering 
subjects," and is yet extant in print. " I should be 
very sorry," he writes, " that there were any just 
reason to believe, that, since my departure from you, 
any endeavours have been used to instruct you other- 
wise than I have done, as to the inviolable duty and 
obedience you owe to his Majesty's government and 
the laws you live under ; and, though your former 
unanimous and humble acquiescence to my constant 
doctrine in this particular w ;r not permit me to have 
the least doubt of your loyalty and peaceable beha- 
viour, yet, because adversity is a strong temptation, 
and temporal necessities the most formidable of all 
motives to our corrupt nature, I thought fit to arm 
your souls against all such assaults, by summing up 
in this epistle the substance of what I have so often 
inculcated unto you by word of mouth in my exhor- 
tations. I hope you remember, that I always endea- 
voured to imprint this great truth lively in your 
minds, that the happiness of man consists more in 
this present state, in possessing the riches of a good 
conscience than the conveniences of this world. 
Good and bad fortune, as thy call them, are but 
improper nicknames and foolish notions, if by that 
language be meant riches and temporal prosperity ; 
they should be of too mean and low a pitch for a 



440 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

soul sprung from heaven and winged by Christianity 
to fly at We are apt to miscal that perse- 
cution, which is a sweet providence of our heavenly 

father To settle you therefore steadily in 

the submission you owe to the laws of the land, as 
well as in the charity you are by Christ's sweet law 
obliged to bear towards your Protestant neighbours 
and fellow-subjects, I will state your case worse than 
really it is, and suppose you were all driven to that 
utmost and worst extremity of begging your bread ; — 
I say, though you were reduced even to that starving 
condition, yet ought you not to endeavour to better 
it by plotting or conspiring against his Majesty's go- 
vernment, person, or subjects ; or by disturbing the 
peace of the kingdom." After enforcing these sen- 
timents by argument and texts from the holy writings, 
he proceeds ; " What I judge most necessary to divert 
you from, nay, even to root out of your hearts, is the 
envy or hatred, which I fear many entertain against 
those who have succeeded in their late possessions. 
I confess men are not ordinarily inclined to wish pros- 
perity to others, raised whether justly or unjustly upon 
their ruin ; but, if they will have the patience to con- 
sider, how common a thing the revolution of times is, 
and how changeable the best secured fortunes are, 
much of that animosity, wherewith the devil doth 
tempt them against their Protestant neighbours, would 

easily be abated Tell me, I beseech you, 

what is this world, only a theatre of foolish and false 
shows ? a short comedy, or rather indeed a short pro- 
logue of everlasting sadness to such as take most 



PETER TALBOT. 441 

delight in it ; a perpetual conflict between life and 
death, sickness and health, fear and hope, joy and 
discontent. Again, what is an inheritance ? a parcel 
of land whereof our ancestors were masters as long as 
they lived ; which term of life, the only interest any 
of them could pretend to, is valued but at seven years' 
purchase ? Is it reasonable then, think you, to fix 
your hearts so unreasonably and passionately upon 
that earth, as if your souls were to turn into it as 
well as your bodies ? Therefore, dearly be- 
loved, I conjure you earnestly, as one who tenders 
your salvation as his own, and believes he must ren- 
der to God an account for your souls, to bear with 
patience this cross which Christ has shared with you. 

These noble souls, who fix their hopes and 

thoughts upon Heaven, do from that height look 
down unmoved upon the vicissitudes of sublunary af- 
fairs and the storms of subject fortune." . ..." I 
conjure you most earnestly," he concludes, " that, if 
any should endeavour to teach you any doctrine con- 
trary to this which I give here under my hand and 
am ready to seal with my blood, you will look upon 
them as wolves, whatsoever their profession or habit 
seem to be. You have had experience of some 
preachers, who pretend great zeal to God and the 
king's service, and yet, at the same time, rebellion and 
murders were proved against them. These are the 
men you must not give ear to nor converse with, 
least you be infected with their doctrine and per- 
verted by their example. Hear and follow the pas- 
tors who are answerable to God for your souls ; not 



442 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

mercenary hirelings, to whom the care of them does 
not properly belong ; and yet, if either these, or I, 
or an angel from Heaven should go about to persuade 
you, that it is lawful to molest your Protestant neigh- 
bours, or defraud them of their goods, or enter upon 
their possessions by any means or method which the 
law of the land doth not allow, give them no credit, 
but let them be to you as an anathema ; God of his 
mercy grant you light to see, strength to bear, and 
a truly wise Christian prudence to husband, and make 
that excellent advantage of your sufferings, which 
God's all-seeing wisdom ordained them for. In the 
jargon of worldly language they are called misfor- 
tunes, but believe me they are the same measures, 
which the sweetly continuing economy of Divine 
Providence ever took to make his servants happy." 

Such were the sentiments, in which a mind at 
peace with itself sought to transfuse its own meekness 
and charity amongst the objects of its holy regard; 
and who can rise from the perusal of this document, 
and not vindicate the memory of the amiable Doctor 
Talbot ? At this period of his life he published, in 
answer to the Jus Primatiale of Doctor Plunket, his 
" Primatus Dubliniensis," in assertion of the prece- 
dence and superiority of his archiepiscopal jurisdic- 
tion ; a work which, Ledwich admits, " exhibits strong 
good sense and liberality." This assertion of title 
on behalf of Dublin was subsequently replied to by 
Hugh Mac Mahon, the Roman Catholic Primate of 
Armagh, in the " Jus Primatiale Armachanum," 
published in 1728, wherein the subject is most learn- 



PETER TALBOT. 443 

edly handled, but not so convincingly, as not to elicit 
a rejoinder from the Reverend John Clynch, as more 
particularly mentioned in the memoir of Doctor Ed- 
mund Byrne. Archbishop Talbot also published, in 
the same year and at Paris, " The History of the 
Iconoclasts," " An efficacious Remedy against Athe- 
ism and Heresy/' " The History of Manicheism and 
Pelagianism," and " The Friar disciplined, or Ani- 
madversions on Friar Peter Walsh's new Remonstrant 
Religion." 

In 1675 he ventured to return to England, where 
he took up his residence at Poole Hall, in Cheshire, 
in a dangerous and afflicting state of health from 
attacks of gravel and strangury. The longing after 
his country increased as he looked upon the sea that 
washed it, and at last, as fearing that the hour of his 
dissolution was approaching, he solicited and obtained, 
by the interest of the Duke of York, a connivance to 
his restoration to Ireland, where the unobtrusiveness 
of his life, as indeed necessitated by the circumstances 
under which he returned and the afflicting state of 
his health, is yet more forcibly evidenced by the 
utter absence of a single memorial to mark his path. 
In 1678, however, on the first of September, he was* 
arrested at Malahide, on suspicion of being concerned 
in what was termed " the Popish plot." Nothing 
was found in his papers to justify the accusation, and 
his state of health, as alluded to, made it almost 
impossible that he could have been concerned in any 
public proceedings. As it seemed impossible to re- 
move him in his state of pain and languor, the secu- 



444 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

rity of his brother was accepted for his appearance ; 
but even this indulgence was a source of dangerous 
misrepresentations, and therefore, on the return of 
the Duke of Ormonde to Dublin, Doctor Talbot was 
removed to the Castle, a prisoner on the point of 
death. 

Within the walls of his dungeon the groans of 
his country fell heavy on his ear. On the 16th of 
October, 1678, a proclamation was published, com- 
manding all archbishops, bishops, Jesuits, &c, to quit 
the kingdom before the ensuing 20th of November ; 
and, on that 20th of November, another order was 
promulgated, that no Catholic should enter the Castle 
of Dublin ; and that the markets of Water ford, Li- 
merick, Cork, Drogheda, Galway, Wexford, and 
Youghal, should be held without and not within the 
walls, in contemplation of their exclusion. Procla- 
mations were also issued, requiring that all Popish 
societies, convents, seminaries, and Popish schools 
should dissolve and separate themselves under penal- 
ties ; and, to facilitate the departure of the proscribed, 
all owners and masters of ships, bound to parts be- 
yond the sea, were required to give public notice of 
the time of their departure, and to take on board such 
ecclesiastics as might require to expatriate themselves. 
All Papists were at the same time forbidden to keep 
or carry arms, or to meet together at unseasonable 
hours or in unusual numbers, and rewards were 
offered for the discovery of any persons, " who had 
been perverted to the Popish religion or heard mass, 
having previously taken the oaths of allegiance and 



PETER TALBOT. 445 

supremacy." The master of every regiment was 
likewise enjoined to check the pay of every officer or 
soldier, who did not produce a certificate, from the 
bishop or minister of the place, of his having taken 
the sacrament, according to the Church of England, 
twice every year. On the 2nd of December follow- 
ing, a further and more mandatory circular issued 
from the Lord Lieutenant and Council, grounded on 
the aforesaid proclamation of the 16th of October, and 
alleging that several of the titular bishops and regular 
clergy had not obeyed it, therefore commanding all 
justices of the peace to make diligent search after 
them, commit them to prison, and return the names 
of their receivers and harbourers, that they too might 
be proceeded against according to law. " There is," 
says a pamphlet of the day, " all the discountenance 
given to mass houses in all places which the laws of 
Ireland will bear, nor is there licence for any arms given 
to any but such as need them, and for no more than 
is necessary for their security against Tories in their 
remote and scattered habitations, and for whose loy- 
alty and peaceable demeanour the Lord Lieutenant 
is sufficiently certified by some Protestants of note. 

The new year did not open with better auspices. 
On the 26th March, 1679, a proclamation issued, for 
seizing and committing to prison the respective "Popish 
pretended parish priests" in Ireland, and transporting 
them beyond the seas, unless, within fourteen days 
after any burglary, murder, or robbery committed, the 
persons who were guilty should be seized and brought 
to justice, and rewards were offered, to the appre- 



446 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

henders of every archbishop, bishop, or Jesuit, £10; 
and of every other commanded to depart, £5, while 
" Popish services in mass houses, or public places, 
were strictly prohibited." It was the last interdict 
of persecution, and fell like a death-blow on the cap- 
tive prelate. He pined in his prison scarcely one 
year more, and died in 1 680, under all its inflictions. 
The prejudices of his contemporaries have sought to 
vilify his memory, and even Mr. Moore has reflected 
their opinions, when he styles him, " the clever and 
turbulent Peter Talbot ;" yet the weight of such an 
authority must yield in the absence of evidence to 
support it, and the equity of modern times should re- 
verse the invidious judgment of the age in which he 
lived. The picture of this prelate is preserved in the 
interesting collection at Malahide Castle. 



PATRICK RUSSELL. 
[Succ. 1683. Ob. 1692.] 

After a vacancy of three years, this archiepiscopal 
dignity was filled by the appointment of Doctor Patrick 
Russell thereto, an event which took place on the 
2nd of August, 1683. In July, 1685, he held a 
provincial council at Dublin, in which, after reciting, 
that by reason of past persecutions such assemblies 
had been long previously unattainable, and after pro- 
viding for the better observance of the festival of St. 
Laurence O' Toole, and that of the Conception, within 
the diocese of Dublin, it was ordained, that any 
priest, celebrating a marriage without licence from 



PATRICK RUSSELL. 447 

the ordinary, or the parish priest of the place where 
the contracting parties were resident, should, as well 
as the said contracting parties, be excommunicated ; 
that accurate registries should be kept of baptisms 
and marriages; that only golden or silver chalices 
should be used at mass; that, to remove the abuses 
and irreverence of divine service in the open air, 
every parish priest should have, within his parish, an 
oratory or chapelry wherein to celebrate mass ; that 
no Catholic should attend the Protestant service, as- 
sist as sponsor at their baptisms, or contract marriage 
through their ministers ; that every secular clergy- 
man about to die, should make his will, and consti- 
tute, at least, another secular clergyman of the diocese 
one of his executors ; that all Catholics should attend 
communion at Easter, which only the parish priest 
shall administer; that no priest, secular or regular, 
should celebrate mass in any private house without 
license from the ordinary, &c. This council further 
confirmed the decrees of those held in 1614 by Doc- 
tor Eugene Matthews, and in 1640 by Doctor Flem- 
ing. Besides Doctor Russell, there attended on this 
occasion the Roman Catholic Bishops, Doctors Phelan 
of Ossory, Wadding of Waterford, Wesley of Kildare, 
who was also administrator of Leighlin, assisted by 
deputies from the chapters of said sees, while Doctor 
Edward Murphy, afterwards himself Archbishop of 
Dublin, acted as secretary. 

In the following year Doctor Russell assisted at a 
session of the Roman Catholic clergy held in Dublin, 
at which their primate, Doctor Maguire, presided, 



448 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



le- 



and to which the Earl of Clarendon alludes in a de- 
spatch of the 1 5th of May, in that year, directed to 
the Earl of Rochester. " This is the day appointed 
by the titular bishops for a general convention of their 
clergy in this city, and there are great numbers of 
them come to town, and of other gentlemen and per- 
sons of quality. I am told one of their businesses is, 
to consider of putting on their habits and of wearing 
them about the streets ; but no doubt there are mat- 
ters of greater moment to be debated. I believe I 
shall have an account of all they do, but, what service 
I shall be able to do thereby, God only knows. One 
would think these people should not venture to exe- 
cute anything, without first communicating their 
resolutions to the king, if they will not make me 
acquainted with them ; though they pretend wonderful 
respect to me, and that they will do nothing without 
first communicating to me This general con- 
vention, (for so it is publicly called and talked of by 
all sorts of people in the town,) is to continue for a 
week, so that I shall quickly see whether they will 
give me any more account of their proceedings than 
they did of their meeting. Methinks I should have 
an answer from my Lord Sunderland to what I wrote 
to him on the 27th past, whereby I should know how 
to guide myself in those matters ; or, if this great 
meeting be by the king's allowance, methinks his 
lordship might have given me some directions, though 
they had been to take no notice of it ; for then I 
should have been at ease, and known I had done no 
fault in not minding what they did. Suppose the 



PATRICK RUSSELL. 449 

Protestant clergy should appoint a general convention 
from all parts of the kingdom, to be held in this city 
or anywhere else, without taking notice to me of it ; 
I am sure I would not suffer them to meet, and would 
legally punish them for the attempt, and I believe 
his Majesty would well approve of my so doing; and 
certainly no government will permit any part of their 
subjects to assemble together without the supreme 
authority. I would be very glad to know your opinion 
in these matters ; and whether I should send this infor- 
mation, of which I have here given you the substance, 
to my lord president, or any others of the proceed- 
ings at this convention, for I have reason to believe 
I shall have several ; but if I do send them, I must 
conceal the names of my informers. The titular Arch- 
bishop of Dublin has been with me, he seems to be 
a good man but is no politician, he is a secular. I 
am told by a good hand of their own party, that he 
and the titular primate do not agree. About two days 
since he asked the primate by what authority this 
convention was called ; to which the other answered, 
that was not a question to be asked, it should be 
known when they were met. The more they differ 
the better, and it is pity the contests between them 
may not be encouraged, but that I must not meddle 
with."* This last sentiment was greatly unworthy 
of Lord Clarendon, but history has been more re- 
tentive of his good qualities. 

Doctor Russell also presided at a diocesan synod 

* Singer's Correspondence of the Earl of Clarendon, vol. i. p. 387, &c. 

2 G 



450 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

held ill Dublin, on the 10th of June, 1686, in which 
it was decreed, in reference to the parochial clergy- 
men having cure of souls, that each should have 
a schoolmaster in his parish, " to instruct the little 
children thereof in Christian doctrine and good 
courses," and should often inspect such school, and 
remove the master, if negligent ; that none should 
absent himself from his cure beyond three nights, 
without the express license of the ordinary, nor even 
then, without appointing a sufficient curate to act for 
him ; that parish priests should take care not to ad- 
mit any to officiate at their altar, unless licensed in 
writing by the ordinary ; that none should frequent 
taverns or places of public diversion ; that no regular 
should administer the sacrament of the Eucharist to 
laymen on Easter Sunday ; that no priest, except a 
parish priest, or his coadjutor, should celebrate mass 
twice on Sundays or holidays, except on the feast of 
the Nativity, or at all in private houses, without license 
from the ordinary ; that no clergyman should solem- 
nize funeral rites, without the permission of the parish 
priest or at his request, nor assist at the office of the 
dead, unless vested in the surplice or alb ; that there 
should be three examiners in Dublin, on whose con- 
sciences it shall rest to sift the qualifications of any 
before being admitted to holy orders, and truly to 
testify thereof; that none should be admitted to such 
orders without examination, and, even after admis- 
sion, that all having cure of souls may be recalled to 
further examination at the will of the ordinary ; that 
none should be appointed coadjutor to a parish priest 



PATRICK RUSSELL. 451 

without license from the ordinary, and a previous 
examination of his fitness ; that, in case the parish 
priest should become unable to fulfil his duties by 
sickness, old age, or otherwise, the ordinary may 
oblige him to have a coadjutor, and appoint his sa- 
lary ; that no parish priest or other clergyman, having 
cure of souls, should exact more stipend or dues from 
his parishioners than had been of customary payment ; 
that none should unbecomingly solicit the obtaining 
or retaining of any benefice ; that religious persons, 
sent into the country with license of their superiors 
to beg alms, should be permitted by the parish priests 
to do so, and this even from their altars, as matter of 
grace not of right, until prohibited by the ordinary ; 
that all clergymen should endeavour to prevent or 
punish the abuses of wakes, and to instruct the people, 
that such wakes were instituted for the good of the 
deceased, the performance of Christian rites, prayers 
for the repose of his soul, and affectionate remem- 
brances of his past existence ; that every clergyman, 
having the cure of souls, should diligently exhort his 
flock to strengthen themselves and their children with 
the sacrament of confirmation, and teach them " how 
necessary it is to receive it in this wretched country, 
where persecution so reiterates the perils of lapse 
from the faith ;" that the bans of marriages should be 
proclaimed three times; that no priest should cite 
another, under pretext of any suit or controversy, be- 
fore the civil authorities, but only before the ordinary, 
and that no layman ought to bring a priest to trial, 
or summon him before the civil authorities, until he 

2 g 2 



452 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

first submits the cause to the ordinary; that no re- 
gular should administer parochial duties, unless with 
the license of the parish priest, or in unavoidable ne- 
cessity arising from his absence and that of his coad- 
jutor," &c. 

On the 4th of April, 1687, King James issued 
from Whitehall his first delusive and despotic edict 
for religious toleration, by an arbitrary dispensing 
with the existing laws; a document, undoubtedly, 
most amiable in its details, but as ill judged as it 
was ill exercised. " There is nothing now that we so 
earnestly desire," says the royal ordinance, " as to 
establish our government on such a foundation as may 
make our subjects happy, and unite them to us by 
inclination, as well as duty, which we think can be 
done by no means so effectual ly, as by granting to 
them the free exercise of their religion for the time 
to come, and add that to the perfect enjoyment of 
their property, which has never in any case been in- 
vaded by us since our coming to the crown, which, 
being the two things men value most, shall ever be 
preserved in our kingdom during our reign over 
them, as the truest methods of their peace and our 
glory. We cannot but heartily wish, as it will easily 
be believed, that all the people of our dominions 
were members of the Catholic Church ; yet, we hum- 
bly thank Almighty God, it is, and hath of long time 
been, our constant sense and opinion, which upon 
divers occasions we have declared, that conscience 
ought not to be restrained, nor people forced in 
matters of mere religion. It has ever been directly 



PATRICK RUSSELL. 453 

contrary to our inclination, as we think it is to the 
interest of government, which it destroys by spoil- 
ing trade, depopulating countries, and discouraging 
strangers ; and finally, that it never obtained the end 
for which it was employed, and in this we are the more 
confirmed by the reflections we have made upon the 
conduct of the four last reigns ; for, after all the fre- 
quent and pressing endeavours, that were used in each 
>f them to reduce this kingdom to an exact conformity 
in religion, it is visible the success has not answered 
the design, and that the difficulty is invincible. We, 
therefore, ... in the first place, do declare, that we 
will protect and maintain our archbishops, bishops, 
and clergy, and all other our subjects of the Church 
of England, in the free exercise of their religion as 
by law established, and in the quiet and full enjoy- 
ment of all their possessions, without any molestation 
or disturbance whatsoever. We do likewise declare, 
that it is our royal will and pleasure, that from hence- 
forth the execution of all and all manner of penal 
laws in matters ecclesiastical, for not coming to 
church, or not receiving the sacrament, or for any 
other non-conformity to the religion established, or for 
or by reason of the exercise of religion in any manner 
whatsoever, be immediately suspended, and the further 
execution of the said penal laws, and every of them is 

hereby suspended And that none of our 

subjects may for the future be under any discourage- 
ment or disability, who are otherwise well inclined 
and fit to serve us, by reason of some oaths or tests, 
that have been usually administered on such occasions, 



454 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

we do hereby further declare, that it is our royal will 
and pleasure, that the oaths, commonly called the 
oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and also the se- 
veral tests and declarations, mentioned in the acts of 
parliament made in the 25th and 30th years of the 
reign of our late royal brother, King Charles the Se- 
cond, shall not at any time hereafter be required to 
be taken, declared, or subscribed, &c. . . . And we do 
hereby give our ample pardon to all non-conformists, 
recusants, and other our loving subjects, for all crimes 
and things by them committed or done, contrary to 
the penal laws formerly made relating to religion 
and the profession or exercise thereof. .... And, 
although the freedom and assurance, we have hereby 
given in relation to religion and property, might be 
sufficient to remove from the minds of our loving 
subjects all fears and jealousies in relation to either, 
yet, we have thought fit further to declare, that we 
will maintain them in all their properties and posses- 
sions as well of church and abbey lands, as in any 
other their lands and properties whatsoever." 

Every feeling, that dictated this arbitrary procla- 
mation, was identified in the administration of the 
no less injudicious individual, to whom the feeble 
monarch resigned the honour of his crown and the 
welfare of his people. The peaceful course of 
Archbishop Russell's life was not, however, to be 
diverted from its legitimate channel, or hurried into 
any precipitate displays, by the impulse thus given to 
the followers of his faith. He continued by synods, 
and councils, and visitations, to inculcate humilit 



PATRICK RUSSELL. 455 

and attention in his clergy, and virtue and loyalty in 
their flocks. In 1688 (9th of May) he presided at 
a synod held in Dublin, wherein, after reciting the 
increasing poverty and want of his parochial clergy, 
it was decreed, that every parish priest, who wished, 
might on four days in the year publicly from his 
altar seek alms for his support, beyond what he 
had theretofore received from his parishioners, and 
continue to do so, until God of his infinite mercy 
would provide more abundantly for them ; he also 
enjoined, that all persons in sickness or infirmity 
should call in their parish priest, within four days or 
sooner from the commencement of such visitation, 
for the purpose of receiving the rites of the Church, 
&c. On the first of August, in the same year, he held 
a provincial council, wherein, after reciting that the 
council of Trent enjoined such assemblies triennially, 
and that the times then permitted this wholesome 
regulation, it was declared to be thus commenced, 
for the service of the Church, the inculcating good 
morals, and the correcting bad ; and it was decreed— 
that it was the duty of the parish priest to admi- 
nister all parochial sacraments to soldiers quartered 
within their precincts, unless the chaplains of the 
regiment could prove some special privilege to the 
contrary ; that every parish priest should, under pain 
of suspension, on the Lord's day explain some point 
of the Christian doctrine, or give a short exhortation 
to the people after the gospel ; and that the constitu- 
tions of the councils of 1614, 1640, and 1685, should 
be and were thereby confirmed. On the 24th of 



456 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

April, in the following year, he held a synod of his 
diocese, wherein clergymen having cure of souls were 
prohibited from being sureties for any one beyond 
40^., without the license of the ordinary ; the use of 
fish at collations on fast days was forbidden, and other 
former regulations relative to days of fast or abstinence 
were confirmed. 

During King James's residence in the Irish me- 
tropolis, Doctor Russell enjoyed the distinction of 
performing the service and rites of his Church in the 
royal presence ; if indeed the minister of any form of 
Christian worship, but particularly of the Roman 
Catholic, where the service is a sacrifice the most 
awful, can be influenced by the pride of earth, or the 
presence of mortal pre-eminence, while he offers up 
the homage of the creature to the God of all. The 
last rite, which he celebrated before the king, was the 
consecration of the Benedictine nunnery in Channel- 
row. On the downfal of the Stuart dynasty he fled 
to Paris, whence, however, he returned to close his 
life in the land of his ministry. At the termination 
of the year 1692 he paid the debt ot nature, and was 
buried in the ancient church of Lusk, as mentioned 
at that locality in " The History of the County of 
Dublin." The event is there, however, erroneously 
referred to 1689. Doctor Russell's principal resi- 
dence was in the old chapel house at Francis-street, 
where an ancient censer is still preserved, exhibiting 
the inscription, " Orate pro Patricio Russell, Archi- 
episcopo Dubliniae, Primate Hibernian, et pro ejus 



PETER CUEAGH. 



457 



fratre Jacobo Russell, Decano Dubliniae, et Protho- 
notario Apostolico, qui me fieri fecit." 



PETER CREAGH. 
[Succ. 1693. ] 

A short sketch of the period, in which Doctor 
Creagh filled this dignity, will sufficiently account 
for the utter obscurity in which his acts and life are 
concealed ; and indeed the same continuing state of 
things must excuse the paucity of materials for the 
general biography of his immediate successors. The 
subject of the present notice, in his origin and family 
connexions, it would seem probable, was a relative of 
Sir Michael Creagh, who was Lord Mayor of Dublin 
in 1688, and who had another brother Mayor of 
Newcastle, also knighted by King James. The lat- 
ter erected a brazen statue of that king at Newcastle, 
which was pulled down by the populace and thrown 
into the river; but, being subsequently found, was con- 
verted into bells for All- Saints' Church. It is known 
that Doctor Creagh presided over the see of Cork 
for several years previous to 1686, about which 
period he was translated to the archdiocese of Tuam. 
On the flight of King James, and the surrender of 
Limerick, he left the country, and resided in Paris 
until on the 9th of March, 1 693, he was further pro- 
moted to this dignity. 

Persecution was not allowed to slumber ; in 1 695, 
the more than gothic acts were revived, that prohibited 
the foreign or domestic education of Catholics ; other 



458 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

penal enactments of great severity succeeded, and in 
1697? " all the Popish prelates, vicars-general, deans, 
monks, Jesuits, and all others of their religion, who exer- 
cised ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Ireland," were order- 
ed by act of parliament to depart from the kingdom 
before the 1st of May, 1698; and in case of their 
coming back were subjected to imprisonment and 
transportation to foreign parts, whence, if they again 
returned, they were to be arraigned as traitors ; by 
the same act, it was provided, that none should be 
buried in any monastery, abbey, or convent, not used 
for the Protestant service. In the same session was 
passed the statute preventing the intermarriages of 
Protestants with Catholics. In 1698, such was the 
persecution of the Catholic clergy, that, according 
to Captain South's account, the number of regulars 
alone " shipped off" from Ireland in that year were 
153 from Dublin, 190 from Gal way, 75 from Cork, 
and 26 from Waterford, making a total of 444. 

Mr. Matthew O' Conor, Lord TaafFe, and some 
other historians of Ireland, are liberal in extolling 
the toleration of King William ; but the author of 
this work, with every disposition to reconcile his 
countrymen to a character, most foully maligned by 
those who affect to immortalize his memory, cannot 
but think, that, with the evidence of the above penal 
enactments, his reign cannot be designated tolerant. 
The one class of writers too much identify his will 
with the measures of the ascendancy party, the other 
would only view him in his natural capacity, ab- 
stracted from those acts, to which, however abhorrent 



EDMUND BYRNE. 459 

they might be, he gave the royal assent. Whatever 
was the promise of the earlier period of his reign, it 
was too soon overcast, and every gleam of favour was 
utterly darkened by the succession of Anne. In her 
reign the provisions of the penal code against Popish 
bishops, deans, friars, Jesuits, &c, coming into this 
kingdom, and against all who should harbour, relieve, 
or conceal them, were further enforced by the statute 
2 Anne, c. 3, which was succeeded by the lamentable 
clauses of the Act to prevent the further growth of 
Popery, further confirmed by the Act 8 Anne, c. 3. 
An invidious and artful measure succeeded, whereby 
it was required that an exact account should be taken 
of all " the Popish clergy" in the island, and regis- 
tries were accordingly opened to ascertain the signa- 
tures and places of their abode. In submissive obe- 
dience to the mandate, 1080 entered the required 
particulars that but marked them for persecution. 
Of these, sixteen were parish priests in the city of 
Dublin, and fifty-four in the county. 

During all this interval not a single notice of 
public importance has been discovered in connexion 
with Archbishop Creagh, and even the period of his 
death is only inferentially suggested by the date of 
his successor's appointment. 

EDMUND BYRNE. 
[Succ. 1707. ] 

In 1707 Doctor Edmund Byrne, who had re- 
ceived orders at Seville, was delegated to the dan- 



460 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

gerous charge of this province, being then in the fifty- 
first year of his age. Soon after his promotion it was 
proposed, under parliamentary sanction, that a public 
convention of Protestant and Catholic prelates and 
doctors should be held for two months, to propound 
and debate on the disputed articles of faith ; " on 
which occasion," says Mr. Clynch, in his defence of 
this prelate against the primatial authority asserted 
by Doctor Mac Mahon, as hereafter alluded to, 
" this praiseworthy archbishop alone, of all the Ca- 
tholic prelates, attended said conferences, and there, 
with such zeal, such wisdom, and such superhuman 
eloquence, propounded the principles of his religion 
in the public College of Dublin, that many, illumi- 
nated by the rays of truth, shaking off the yoke of 
heresy, sought the harbour of safety in the bosom of 
the Church." The executive, however, were not 
influenced by his reasoning. The policy of King 
William, even so far as he was permitted to exercise 
it, died with him. Queen Anne was prevailed upon 
to utterly annihilate the security he had given, to 
revoke the public faith pledged to the Catholics as 
the price of their submission at Limerick, and a mil- 
lion of loyal subjects were prohibited by the heaviest 
penalties from co-operating in the public service. 
The illustration of these enactments is deplorably 
attainable in what ought to immortalize the wisdom 
of senators — the statute books ; it must, however, be 
here briefly observed, that by virtue of these acts 
Catholics were interdicted from realizing the profits 
of their own industry, under the penalty of forfei- 



EDMUND BYRNE. 461 

ture ; excluded from all leasehold interests for terms 
longer than thirty-one years ; informers were encou- 
raged to acquire legal benefits by treachery, where 
nature or justice could confer none ; and, what was 
still more fiendishly aggravating, a son, conforming 
to the established law, entitled himself to divest his 
Catholic father of his inheritance ; and, while on the 
one hand an annuity of £30 was offered to every 
conformist priest, rewards were prescribed for the 
apprehension of those who maintained their faith ; 
£50 for every archbishop, bishop, vicar-general, &c. ; 
£20 for every priest, regular or secular; and £10 
for every Popish schoolmaster, tutor, or usher. The 
leading act of this code (8 Anne, c. 3) required, that 
the doomed ecclesiastics should take the oath of ab- 
juration, under pain of being transported ; but, even 
with this alternative, only thirty-seven of the 1,080 
registered clergymen were influenced to take the oath. 
To the credit of a portion of the Protestant hierarchy 
it should be mentioned, that Archbishop King and 
seven other prelates of that faith, with becoming 
Christian charity, protested against many of those 
tyrannous enactments, that sought to enslave the 
privilege of thinking, and disorganize the elements of 
society. 

In 1712, when Edward Eyre, Mayor of Gal way, 
was directed to suppress the nunneries in that town, 
" Doctor John Burke, then provincial of the Fran- 
ciscans in Ireland, of which order the nuns were,, 
obtained permission from Doctor Edmund Byrne, 
titular Archbishop of Dublin, to admit them into his 



462 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

diocese, hoping they would be less noticed there, than 
in a place upon which government kept so strict an 
eye as Galway. A few of these unhappy ladies were 
accordingly translated to Dublin, but they had scarce- 
ly reached the city, when the Lords Justices received 
information of their arrival, and immediately issued 
orders for their apprehension; in consequence of 
which several of them were taken in their conventual 
habits. A proclamation then issued, dated the 20th 
of September in that year, to apprehend said John 
Burke, Doctor Byrne, and Doctor Nary, as Popish 
priests attempting to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion contrary to the laws of this kingdom, and it was 
ordered that all the laws in force against the Papists 
should be strictly carried into execution ; such were 
the fears and alarm caused by the arrival of a few 
weak women in the capital, as if the circumstance had 
been sufficient to overturn the Government, or to 
shake the foundations of the Established Church."* 

On the 7th of August, 1714, in the proclama- 
tion announcing the accession of George the First, 
it was required " for preventing dangers that might 
arise at this juncture from Papists, or other persons 
disaffected to his Majesty's government, and for pre- 
serving the public peace of this kingdom ;" that all 
Papists, theretofore licensed to keep and wear arms, 
should deliver same and all ammunition to the next 
justice of the peace, and all justices were commanded 
to seize and take all serviceable horses found in the 

* Hardiman's Hist, of Galway, p. 275. 



EDMUND BYRNE. 463 

possession of any Papist or suspected person. This 
proclamation was signed by William, Archbishop of 
Dublin, Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Kildare, P. Savage, 
&c, &c. 

In March, 1717? when the Dominican nuns were 
driven from Galway, as the Franciscans had been 
a few years previously, Hugh O'Callanan, then 
provincial of the former order, obtained a similar 
permission from Archbishop Byrne, for their ad- 
mission into his diocese, where in the September 
following, they founded the convent of Jesus, Mary, 
and Joseph of Dublin.* It was at this period of 
his prelacy, that Doctor Byrne was involved in a 
controversy with his brother prelate of Armagh, 
Doctor M'Mahon, on the ancient primatial rights. 
The renewal of this difference was occasioned by the 
former having divided the long united parishes of 
St. James and St. Catherine, as had been done some 
few years before in the Established Church ; the Ro- 
man Catholic incumbent thereupon appealed to Dr. 
M'Mahon, whose zeal in the assertion of his own 
pre-eminence produced that very learned work, the 
"Jus Primatiale Armachanum." The matter was 
referred to the College de Propaganda, whose deci- 
sion, after a litigation of some years, restored the 
appellant; the subject was, however, again more 
solemnly laid before the Pope in council, when the 
claim of Archbishop Byrne was supported in argu- 
ment by the Rev. John Clynch, one of the clergymen 

* Hardiman's Hist, of Galway, p. 2/7. 



464 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

of his Grace's diocese. This divine's defence is 
exceedingly scarce ; the only copy, which the author of 
these memoirs has ever seen, is in manuscript in the 
collections of his publisher, Mr. Smith. It alleges, 
that seven clergymen were necessary for the cure of 
souls in the two parishes of St. Catherine and St. 
James ; that, on the division, Doctor Byrne had de- 
signed the former for the vicar-general of his diocese, 
and accordingly it had been so held by Doctor Gould- 
ing and Doctor Kavanagh successive vicars-general, 
when the decree of the Propaganda restored the old 
incumbent; and, in reference to the main question 
in dispute, the advocate relied, that primatial autho- 
rity ought to reside in that province which contained 
the largest population, the seat of government, and 
the constant metropolis of the island ; that Armagh 
was comparatively an obscure and remote locality, 
only respected from its antiquity not its authority ; 
that the visitations, alleged to have been made in 
olden time by the prelate of Armagh in other pro- 
vinces, were confined to Connaught and Munster; and 
only exercised there with the view of collecting an 
ecclesiastical assessment called ' the law of St. Patrick,' 
and which continued to be paid in the national 
reverence for the apostle of Ireland ; that Saint 
Patrick himself, though the patron of Ireland, never 
was its primate ; that the Archbishop of Dublin was 
the first invested with the pall by Cardinal Paparo ; 
that the province was previously subject to Canter- 
bury, but, being thereby exempted, became itself as 
supreme. Clynch also reiterated those letters patent 



EDWARD MURPHY. 



465 



of Kings John and Edward the Third, and bulls of 
Eugenius the Third, Ho norms the Third, Lucius 
the Third, Innocents the Third and Fourth, which 
have been before alluded to at their respective dates, 
and confidently denied the existence of any authentic 
Bull in favour of Armagh. The final decision of the 
Roman college has not been ascertained, and it but 
remains to say, that Doctor Byrne died in a few years 
afterwards, leaving the memory of his virtues to be re- 
corded only in some Irish poems by John O'Neachtan 
and by Hugh Mac Curtin respectively. 

EDWARD MURPHY. 
[Succ. 1724. Ob. 1729.] 

Of the early period of this prelate's life it is re- 
corded, that at the synod before mentioned, as having 
been held by Archbishop Russell, in July, 1 685, Ed- 
ward Murphy acted as secretary, as also at that held 
by the same prelate, in August, 1688. He was sub- 
sequently Bishop of Kildare, from which see he was, 
in 1724, translated to the government of this province, 
which he rilled during five years, and died in 1 729- 

It may be remarked, that, in the year after such 
his promotion, the act was passed to prevent " Popish 
priests and degraded clergymen from celebrating 
marriages between Protestants, or between a Pro- 
testant and a Papist, under penalty of death ; and in 
the same session another statute excluded Papists 
from voting at vestries. 



2 H 



466 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

LUKE FAGAN. 
[Succ. 1729. .] 

In 1 729* Doctor Luke Fagan was translated from 
the diocese of Meath to this see, which he also filled 
during about five .years, residing in that interval at 
the ancient chapel-house in Francis-street ; but, not- 
withstanding the spirit of toleration, which greatly 
pervaded the government of George the Second, this 
prelate has not by any public act, civil or ecclesiastical, 
projected himself to the notice of posterity; while, in 
reference to the state of Catholicity in his time, it is 
only to be remarked, that in 1733, probably the last 
of Doctor Fagan's life, the act was passed, 7 Geo. II, 
c. 6, whereby converts from the Roman Catholic 
faith, whose wives were of that persuasion, or whose 
children were educated in it, were prohibited, under 
severe penalties, from exercising the office of justices 
of the peace. 

JOHN LINEGAR. 
[Succ. 1734. Ob. 1756.] 

In 1734 Doctor Linegar was appointed to this 
dignity, which he held as unmolested as could be ex- 
pected during the existence of the penal code, until 
the administration of the Duke of Devonshire. In 
the intermediate year, however, of 1739? the act of 
King William, " for disarming the Papists," was fur- 
ther enforced, with a remarkable exception of such as 
were in Limerick in October, 1691 5 or had borne 
arms under a commission from King James, and had 



JOHN LINEGAR. 



467 



submitted previous to tbe act of William, nor since 
refused to take the oath of allegiance. During the 
short viceroyalty of the before mentioned nobleman, 
the vengeance of the law was again fulminated against 
the Catholic prelacy and priesthood ; and, on the 
28th of February, 1743, a proclamation issued, by 
which all justices of peace were directed to put the 
penal laws in force for the detection of Popish pre- 
lates and priests, and, in the same document, large pecu- 
niary rewards were offered for the seizure and con- 
viction of those proscribed persons, and of any others 
who should dare to conceal them, or receive them 
hospitably into their houses.* 

In consequence of this harsh and cruel edict, the 
chapels were closed, domiciliary visits were made in 
search of the fugitive priests, and universal alarm was 
diffused through the country ; yet some zealous ec- 
clesiastics having ventured to exercise their ministry in 
obscure and unfrequented places, on one of these 
occasions, a priest of the name of John Gerald offi- 
ciated in the interior of a ruinous habitation in the 
city of Dublin. The mass was concluded, the bene- 
diction given, and the people had risen to depart, 
when suddenly the house fell; Father Gerald and 
nine of his auditors were killed on the spot, and many 
more were severely bruised or maimed. Moved to 
pity by this lamentable event the Lords Justices, who 
succeeded the duke, one of whom was the Protes- 
tant primate, Hoadly, effected toleration in the council, 



De Burgo, Hib. Dom. p. 717. 



2 h 2 



468 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

and the chapels were again opened on the 17th of 
March, 1745, the anniversary of St. Patrick's day.* 

In 1751 Doctor Linegar received from Rome 
instructions, which he was directed to transmit to the 
Archbishops of Armagh, Cashel, and Tuam, to be by 
each of them communicated to their suffragans, and 
by which the several prelates were exhorted to subdi- 
vide too extensive districts into new parishes, or 
otherwise to select coadjutors for the parish priests 
for the service of their flocks ; the prelates were also 
directed to reside and enforce residence within their 
sees; and in every second year to report, to the 
nuncio at Brussels, the state of the Catholic reli- 
gion and of ecclesiastical discipline within their sees. 
Confessors were forbidden to take alms at their 
confession-boxes ; and parish priests were directed to 
cause the children of their charge to be taught their 
catechism diligently and correctly ; while in refe- 
rence to the regular clergy, their superiors were 
ordered to avoid admitting any to take the religious 
habit in Ireland ; as it was desirable that those, who 
sought such preferment, should assume the habit only 
in monasteries existing in Catholic countries, where 
the noviciates are regulated according to the consti- 
tutions of the Popes ; and should not return to Ireland 
until they finished the course of their studies there, 
and, in particular, fully acquired the knowledge of 
dogmatic and moral theology. Archbishop Linegar 
lived until the year 1 756. His portrait is preserved 
at the Sienna convent in Drogheda. 

* De Burgo, Hib. Dom. p. 176. 



KICHARD LINCOLN. 



469 



KICHARD LINCOLN* 
[Succ. 1757. Ob. 1762.] 

Doctor Lincoln was appointed to succeed Doctor 
Linegar, in J 757 ; in the October of which year, 
he caused an exhortation to be read from the altars of 
all the chapels in his diocese, inviting the Roman 
Catholics to be thankful to those, who, without dis- 
tinction of persons, had preserved them by their 
benevolence and charity in the then recent visitation 
of famine ; and " especially to be most earnest in 
their thanks to the chief governors and magistrates of 
the kingdom, and of the city of Dublin in particular, 
who on this occasion proved the fathers and saviours 
of the nation. " He further encouraged them to a 
continuance of peaceful and Christian dispositions, 
while he feelingly and forcibly appealed to those of 
another communion as to Catholic loyalty and love. 
" A series of more than sixty years," he said, " spent 
with a pious resignation under the hardships of very 
severe penal laws, and with the greatest thankfulness 
for the lenity and moderation with which they were 
executed ever since the accession of the present royal 
family, is certainly a fact which must outweigh, in 
the minds of all unbiassed persons, any misconceived 
opinions of the doctrines and tenets of our holy 
Church.'' The excellent document concluded by 
urging his flock to abstinence from sin, and the per- 
formance of moral and religious duties. 

In 1759 (1st December), " when a foreign enemy 



470 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

was meditating desperate attempts, to disturb the hap- 
piness and interrupt the repose which these kingdoms 
had so long enjoyed," the Roman Catholics of this 
diocese presented an address to the Duke of Bedford, 
then viceroy, assuring him that " they were ready 
and willing, to the utmost of their abilities, to assist 
in supporting his Majesty's government against 
all hostile attempts whatsoever." About this time 
some unfortunate disputes arose between Archbishop 
Lincoln and the regular clergy of his diocese ; the 
former having felt it necessary to control their faculty 
of hearing confessions, and to prescribe other matters 
of ecclesiastical discipline : in consequence of which 
an ordinance issued from Rome in August, 1761, 
more peremptorily enjoining the manner in which 
alone such confessions should be permitted, and 
otherwise adjusting the disputed points of disci- 
pline.* 

In February, 1762, a yet more benevolent and 
loyal exhortation, than that of 1757? was read from 
the altars of the different chapels in Dublin, strongly 
urging the respective congregations to submission 
and allegiance, generously adverting to the great 
lenity and indulgence of the new monarch's and his 
royal ancestors' government, in reference to those 
penal enactments which had originated before the 
accession of the House of Brunswick, and recom- 
mending the king to their affectionate prayers, " That 
the God of hosts," it concluded, " may bless his Ma- 

* See De Burgo, Hib. Dom. p. 753. 



PATRICK FITZSIMON. 



471 



jesty, his officers, and his troops, inspire and direct 
his councils, and grant such a glorious and a happy 
conclusion to the war, that a solid, lasting, and ad- 
vantageous peace may restrain the effusion of Chris- 
tian blood." The different clergymen at the same 
time exhorted their congregations not to aid, abet, 
or succour any deserters, nor connive at their desert- 
ing ; and also recommended, in the most expressive 
terms, to all such of their flock as should take his 
Majesty's royal advance money, not to quit their 
colours upon any account, as they, on behalf of them- 
selves and the fraternity of their ministry, disavow in 
the most solemn manner any such mal-practices ; for 
that such of their flock, as should in any way derogate 
from this charge, would incur the anathema of the 
Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.* 

Doctor Lincoln died at the close of the same 
year, and was buried in a family vault in St. James's 
church-yard, Dublin. 



PATRICK FITZSIMON. 
[Succ. 1763. Ob. 1769. J 

In 1763 Patrick Fitzsimon, Dean of Dublin, and 
Parish Priest of St. Audeon's, was appointed to this 
dignity, which he filled during six years, but his life 
was so unobtrusive and so purely ecclesiastical, as to 
leave, even amongst his relatives, no materials of suf- 
ficient interest for a popular memoir. It may, how- 



* Sleater's Public Gazetteer, Feb. 20, 1762. 



472 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

ever be noticed, that his prudence and sound judg- 
ment were pre-eminently evinced on the occasion, 
when the intemperate Ghillini, the Pope's nuncio at 
Brussels, denounced the test oaths, that were pro- 
jected as a security in contemplation of emancipating 
the Catholics of Ireland, and actually directed to Doctor 
Fitzsimon an authoritative remonstrance against it, 
which he designed for circulation, as a pastoral letter, 
through the province : the good sense and genuine 
Christianity of the archbishop, however, suppressed 
the rash and uncharitable production. He died in 
Francis-street, Dublin, at the advanced age of seventy- 
six. 

The Irish parliament, it may be mentioned, in the 
last year of this prelate's time issued an order to the 
several archbishops and bishops of the Established 
Church to return a list of the several families in their 
parishes, distinguishing which were Protestants, and 
which were Papists ; as also a list of the several 
reputed Popish priests and friars residing in their 
parishes. 

JOHN CARPENTER. 
[Succ. 1770. Ob. 1786.] 

Doctor Carpenter was the son of a respectable 
merchant-tailor, who resided in Chancery-lane, Dub- 
lin. It is related of him, that he was dumb until the 
age of seven, when, having strayed away from his 
home to a remote part of the city, under the in- 
fluence of terror at the crowds that gathered round 
him, and the excitement of the accident, his voice 



JOHN CARPENTER. 473 

was suddenly called into action, and the first sounds 
he uttered indicated, as might be expected, his father's 
name and address. Having passed, according to the 
necessities of the times, to a foreign university, (Lis- 
bon), for education and degrees, he, on his return to 
his native city, was appointed a curate in St. Mary's 
parish chapel. At this period of his life, the circum- 
stances of the country precipitated him in a political 
position, which cannot be better illustrated than in 
the following extract of an unpublished work, from 
the pen of Mr. Matthew O' Conor, and which he has 
kindly communicated to the writer of these memoirs. 
" Landed security for money lent and a legal test 
of loyalty had been long the object of pursuit with 
the managers of the concerns of the Irish Catholics. 
The first would have given them a footing in the 
land of their birth, and a legislative recognition of 
their loyalty would have furnished irresistible argu- 
ments for their admission to the privileges of sub- 
jects. Doctor Curry and Mr. O'Conor had urged 
in all their tracts the justice and policy of these mea- 
sures ; and Lord Taaffe, in his intercourse with men 
in power, did not fail to impress them with his usual 
energy. In the hope of attaining these objects, he 
undertook a journey in the winter of 1767 to the 
Irish metropolis from his residence in Silesia, and 
apprized the committee in Dublin of his arrival in 
London. ' I am here,' he wrote to Doctor Curry, 
' these ten days, and am sorry to see that we take 
nothing in hands seriously. 'Tis a great disappoint- 
ment to me that Mr. Carpenter is not here with 



474 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

some instructions. If we would take our affairs in 
earnest in hands, I do hope for certain we would 
succeed ; I would be glad to be in Ireland before the 
parliament would sit after Christmas ; I will have 
letters for the Lord Lieutenant ; for, if I can do no- 
thing this parliament, I can't expect next winter to 
be able to make such a long journey. I got no let- 
ters from Ireland, which grieves me much.' The 
Dublin committee hailed his lordship's arrival, by 
sending Mr. Carpenter to aid his exertions and to 
officiate as his chaplain and secretary."* 

The narrative of this mission is supplied in the 
following letter from Mr. Carpenter in London to 
Doctor Curry, dated 26th of November, 1767: — " I 
embarked," he writes, " on the 18th instant, Handed 
that night at Holyhead, set out next morning in the 
rain for Chester, which I reached after a great deal 
of fatigue on the 20th, and that same day took post 
for London, where I arrived on the 24th. Though 
late at night I went in quest of my lord, whom I 
found confined with a fit of the gout, and, as the post 
was going off, he made me write a few lines to you. 
After this I had a walk of two miles to my inn, but 
have since taken a lodging convenient to his lord- 
ship. The great expedition of this journey was ex- 
pensive, but it was necessary as my lord had been 
here a fortnight. The living here is also more ex- 
pensive than I imagined, and for my bare lodging I 
am to pay half a guinea a week. In this case I think 



* O'Conor's MS. Continuation of the History of the Irish Catholics. 



JOHN CARPENTER. 475 

the most convenient method of remittance is, to order 
some merchant here to advance me weekly what may 
be judged reasonable during my stay here. His 
lordship flatters himself that our journey will be pro- 
ductive of some good. Give my hearty service to 
Mr. O'Conor: how many happy evenings have you 
now an opportunity of spending in the company of 
that great and good man." 

In another letter of the same correspondence, 
dated December 19th, 1 767? Mr. Carpenter con- 
tinues : — " I have it in express command from his 
lordship, (Lord Taaffe,) to communicate the steps he 
has taken since the 12th. The next day he waited 
on your new chancellor, (Lord Lifford,) with whom 
he conversed for a considerable time on the affairs of 
Ireland ; he assured him with his usual plainness and 
sincerity, that he had quitted his family and friends, 
and undertaken, at this advanced time of his life, a 
long and toilsome journey, with no other view but to 
obtain some relief for his poor distressed countrymen. 
He spoke very freely as well as feelingly of the rigour 
of the penal laws, and of the refusal given to the 
Elegit Bill ; and dwelt a good deal upon some facts, 
to which he happened to be a witness, particularly 
the late troubles in the South ; the fatal effects of 
those troubles, and the violent party-rage which had 
been the cause of them. He concluded with an 
earnest request, that he (the Chancellor) would use 
every possible means of informing himself from Judge 
Aston, and others, of the true state of the country, 
before he quitted this kingdom. The substance of 



476 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

what the Chancellor said during this long conversa- 
tion was, that he was fully determined to open his 
ears to any information necessary for the impartial 
administration of justice; that the refusal of granting 
any other security to Catholics for money lent, but 
a personal and precarious one, was both unreasonable 
and cruel, and that a mitigation of the rigour of 
some penal laws already seemed to be intended, from 
the late determination of the Chancellor here in the 
case of Hobson and Mash. Lord TaafFe was ex- 
tremely well pleased with his visit and went directly 
to court ; here the queen, (who that day made her 
first appearance after lying-in,) took particular notice 
of him ; she congratulated him on his recovery from 
the gout ; told him the king had spoken to her of 
him, and continued for some time conversing to him 
in German. At this time he again met with the 
Chancellor, by whom he was accosted in a very 
friendly manner. From the acquaintance with the 
Chancellor, which he will endeavour to improve, my 
lord has great expectations. He is now every day 
abroad from morning until night, and is determined 
to omit no opportunity of engaging the interest of 
the great, while he remains here. Besides the visits 
he makes, he regularly attends at the levees of the 
court, and at the assemblies of the several ambassadors, 
so that I shall hereafter enjoy but very little of his 
company. This account of his progress here, he still 
positively asserts must not be communicated by you 
to any one, excepting the three persons he mentioned 
in a former letter." 



JOHN CARPENTER. 477 

" After several applications to men in power," 
continues Mr. O' Conor, whose narrative it were 
injustice to abridge, " Lord TaafFe proceeded to 
Dublin in the following February, where by his ex- 
ertions and influence he defeated the Quarterage Bill ; 
but the times were not yet ripe for a relaxation of 
the code. Lord Townsend, then engaged in the con- 
flict with the oligarchy, feeling that concessions to 
the Catholics would throw the whole body of the 
Protestants into the hands of that oligarchy, wisely 
avoided all measures tending to unite his enemies 
and to obstruct his operations ; yet he would often 
humorously say to Lord TaafFe, that, if his head were 
as good as his heart, he would do more service to the 
bloody minded Papists. The oligarchy were at this 
period too strong in the long enjoyment of power, 
and in the rooted aversion of the Protestant part of 
the community to the Catholics, to be shaken by any 
other means than by corruption and division. Any 
substantial relief to the body of the people; any 
effort to break in upon the code, would have rallied, 
round the standard of the great families, every man 
of weight or consequence in the kingdom, and would 
have infallibly defeated Lord Townsend's great pro- 
ject of restoring to the crown its constitutional 
prerogative. Lord TaafFe, finding the horizon too 
clouded to expect any success during the session of 
1768, returned to Germany; having obtained the 
Lord Lieutenant's permission to correspond freely 
with him on the subject of the Catholics; and having, 
in his way through London, waited on Lord Frederick 



478 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Campbell, the Irish secretary, on Lords Mansfield 
and Shelbourne, and other ministers, in order to im- 
press on them the policy of relieving the country 
from the intolerable burthen of the penal code. In 
this great object his whole soul was absorbed; and, 
though success crowned not his efforts, the reader 
will scarce feel less pleasure in perusing, than the 
writer in recording, the zealous efforts of a statesman 
in his 87th year, to relieve the distresses of a people, 
with whom he was connected by the mere land of 
birth, having neither property nor connexions in his 
native country. His applications in England were 
little attended to. The Irish Catholics were then of 
too little weight to be taken up by contending fac- 
tions, and considered of too little importance to be 
noticed in the system of empire."* Their venerable 
mediator died soon afterward* at his seat in Silesia, in 
the fulness of honours and years, an undoubted in- 
stance of a patriot, the sole incentive of whose 
actions was his country's good. 

On the death of Doctor Fitzsimon, the regulars 
of this province anxiously solicited the translation of 
Doctor De Burgo, the celebrated writer of the " Hi- 
bernia Dominicana," from the see of Ossory to this 
archiepiscopal dignity ; but the influence of the Earl 
of Eingal, Charles O' Conor of Balinagare, and others 
of the Catholic nobility and gentry, and the warm 
concurrence of the secular clergy of Dublin, effected 
the promotion of Doctor Carpenter hereto, who was 



O'Conor's MS. Continuation of the History of the Irish Catholics. 



JOHN CARPENTER. 479 

accordingly so presented, as prebendary of Wicklow 
and curate of St. Mary's, for the approval of the 
Propaganda, and was consecrated in Liffey-street 
chapel, on the 3rd of June, 1770, by the Catholic 
Primate, Doctor Blake, assisted by Doctors Keeffe of 
Kildare, and De Burgo of Ossory. In the parliament 
of the year that succeeded Doctor Carpenter's eleva- 
tion, the long sought measure of securing to Roman 
Catholics sums advanced by them to Protestants on 
mortgages of lands was rejected, as it was again in that 
of I772, and a third time in 1774, by a yet increas- 
ing majority. In November, 1778, "Doctor Car- 
penter, at the head of seventy of his clergy, and 
several hundred Roman Catholic laity, attended at 
the Court of King's Bench in Dublin, and took the 
oaths prescribed by the late act for the relief of Ro- 
man Catholics in that kingdom."* 

In the session of 1781-2, was passed the act, en- 
abling Roman Catholics to purchase lands or any 
interest therein, except manors, advowsons, and bo- 
roughs returning members to parliament ; and their 
clergy, on registering their names and residences, 
were exempted from any statutable penalties. By 
another statute of the same session, Catholic school- 
masters, being duly licensed by the ordinary, were 
permitted to teach children of that persuasion, and 
Catholic laymen were allowed to be guardians of 
such children. 

On the 29th of October, 1786, Doctor Carpenter 

* Dodsley's Annual Register, vol. xxi. p. 208. 



480 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

closed his mortal career, in the fifty-ninth year of his 
age, and was buried in St. Michan's churchyard, 
Dublin, where a simple slab records his unostentatious 
but zealous services. He was not endowed with any 
especially splendid talents, but more usefully distin- 
guished for sound judgment, strong memory, and di- 
ligent research. His administration was by his piety 
and prudence an interval of peace and devotion to his 
arduous ecclesiastical duties. 



JOHN THOMAS TROY. 
[Succ. 1786. Ob. 1823.] 

The successor of Doctor Carpenter was born at 
a seat of the family, situated near Porterstown in the 
county of Dublin. At the early age of fifteen, he left 
this country to prosecute his studies in Rome, where 
he assumed the Dominican habit, and gradually passed 
from grade to grade, until he became rector of St. 
Clement's in that city. In 1776, on the death of 
Doctor de Burgo, Catholic Bishop of Ossory, the 
Pope selected this divine as most worthy to succeed 
that illustrious prelate. He was, accordingly, conse- 
crated in the same year at Louvain, on his way home- 
wards, by the Archbishop of Mechlin, assisted by 
two mitred abbots. On arriving in his diocese he re- 
vived those religious conferences upon cases of con- 
science, which had been wisely prescribed by the sta- 
tutes of the Church, but, from necessity, had been 
discontinued for some years, and, to guard against 
any confusion or disunion on such occasions, he pre- 



JOHN THOMAS TROY. 481 

scribed, that the presidents of each conference should 
take care, that the subjects of discussion be treated 
on with the greatest practical brevity and precision ; 
and that, in order to elucidate and explain such sub- 
jects, the truth should be sought from the holy Scrip- 
tures, the decrees of the Popes, the councils, and the 
constant and general practice of the Church. 

In January and October, 1779? he promulgated 
very spirited circulars against the then too prevalent 
outrages of the Whiteboys; and, on the 17th of the 
latter month, caused all such persons to be solemnly 
excommunicated in the churches of his diocese. In 
1781, in consequence of a prosecution instituted at 
Rome by the Catholic clergy of Armagh against their 
Primate, Doctor Blake, on the ground of his non- 
residence, Doctor Troy was commissioned to re-esta- 
blish peace in that province, whereupon he held a 
meeting in St. Peter's Chapel, Drogheda, which con- 
tinued its sittings for several days, and was attended 
by the chief clergy of Armagh. In November, 1784, 
in consequence of the increased turbulence of the 
Whiteboys, and their especial resort within the diocese 
of Ossory, by reason, as it would seem, of the refuge 
and hiding-places which its numerous coal-mines af- 
forded, this prelate addressed a circular to his clergy, 
in which, after referring to his former circulars of 
1779? he feelingly deplored, that tumult and disorder 
should exist amidst the dispensations of peace and a 
plentiful harvest, and that so many, unmindful of the 
ignominious deaths of their former associates, and 
deaf to the dictates of reason and the principles of 

2 i 



482 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

religion, so often inculcated from the altars of his 
diocese, were yet exerting themselves to renew those 
horrid scenes of slaughter and of bloodshed, which 
years ago had polluted this part of the island ; he de- 
nounced the blasphemy, by which they had dared to 
interpose the sanctity of an oath for an object of con- 
spiracy ; and, as his silence on such an occasion might 
either be mistaken by the ignorant, or interpreted in 
a sinister way by the malevolent, he solemnly pro- 
nounced the oaths, taken by these deluded creatures, 
bonds of iniquity, unlawful, infamous, and damnable, 
and of no force to bind ; that such combinations of 
iniquity were contrary to the maxims of the Catholic 
religion, destructive of the public peace, injurious to 
the quiet possessions of private individuals, and in 
their nature tending to the subversion of all law and 
order ; and, finally, that such Roman Catholics as 
took part in these outrages were scandalous members, 
cut off from the Church, from the communion of 
which they had been separated by the sentence of 
excommunication, solemnly pronounced against them, 
as before mentioned. This well-timed, loyal, and 
effective admonition induced an especial letter of 
thanks from the Secretary of State. 

In 1786 Doctor Troy proposed, as subjects for the 
conferences of his diocese. Natural Law in relation to 
human society with reference to the perverse opi- 
nions of Cumberland, Hobbes, Collins, and others, 
alike destructive of government and religion ; the 
disputants being directed to refute their theory, to 
shew the necessity of revelation and the sacred writ- 



JOHN THOMAS TROY. 483 

lugs and the traditions preserved in the Church for 
the government of man ; and to evince that the light 
of reason alone could not effectuate the object. In 
the same year he felt it necessary to prohibit the 
celebration of these public festivals, called " patrons" 
and " May balls/' which, although they had originated 
in the piety of the faithful, were frequented with a 
spirit utterly conflicting with devotional exercises, 
and closed in riot, intemperance, and vice. At the 
termination of the year 1786, on the decease of 
Doctor Carpenter, he was translated to this archi- 
episcopal dignity by the Pope; and no selection could 
have elicited more universal joy and congratulation 
amongst all classes of the people. 

In the November of the ensuing year (1787) he 
issued his pastoral directions to his clergy, in which 
he strictly prohibited the future celebration of mid- 
night masses, which had theretofore, as in Catholic 
countries, ushered in the festival of Christmas, and 
enjoined that no mass should on that occasion take 
place earlier than six o'clock a. m. ; directed the 
time within which masses should be commenced, and 
that no priest should celebrate two on a retrenched 
holyday ; that every parish priest should on Sundays 
and holydays read aloud to his congregation, before 
each mass, the Acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity, 
with that of Contrition; directed that, whenever indul- 
gences were published, those who sought the benefit 
thereof should be exhorted of the essential requisites 
for such holy hopes, viz. sacramental confession, with 
all its sincere and unequivocal qualities, penitence, 



484 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

satisfaction, communion, prayers, almsgiving, &c\ ; 
forbade any priest, regular or secular, from appearing 
at hunts, races, or public concerts ; ordered that in every 
deanery or rural district conferences should be regu- 
larly held in moral theology once in every month from 
April to October, and in the parishes of the city of 
Dublin once in every month of the year ; and, to control 
private and surreptitious marriages, he required that 
the contracting parties should confess and communi- 
cate. He enjoined the clergy frequently to catechise 
the children of their parishioners, and exhorted the 
laity to a regular and solemn observance of Easter 
communion, &c. &c. In 1970 he published a strong 
pastoral, impressing the solemnity with which " the 
sacrament of matrimony" should be approached, and 
decrying the too prevalent resort to " couple-beg- 
gars" and degraded ministers; and on the 15th of 
March, 1792, he and the clergy of his diocese signed 
a declaration, solemnly disavowing, and condemning as 
wicked and impious the opinions, — that princes excom- 
municated by the Pope and council, or by any eccle- 
siastical authority whatsoever, might be thereupon 
deposed or murdered ; — that any ecclesiastical power 
could dissolve subjects from their allegiance ; — that it 
is lawful to murder or injure any person, under the 
pretence of his being an heretic; — that an act in itself 
unjust, immoral, or wicked, can be justified under 
pretence of being done for the good of the Church or 
in obedience to any ecclesiastical power; — that no faith 
is to be kept with heretics, or that the Pope has or 
ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction 



JOHN THOMAS TROY. 485 

within this realm, &c. This disavowal of opinions, 
most falsely but too prevalently attributed to Catho- 
lics, induced the Act of the same session, whereby 
persons of that persuasion were permitted to follow 
the professions of barristers and attorneys, and mar- 
riages between them and Protestants were legalized, 
provided they were celebrated by clergymen of the 
Established Church; concessions, which were speedily 
followed by far more important immunities and re- 
laxations for the long persecuted Catholics. 

In 1793 Doctor Troy published Pastoral Instruc- 
tions on the Duties of Christian Citizens, a work 
which was too rashly impugned as favouring repub- 
licanism; whereas the sole object, for which that form 
of government was mentioned in the pamphlet, was 
to meet the objection too frequently urged, that the 
tenets of the Roman Catholic religion favour arbi- 
trary government, and the consequent deduction that 
its professors were unfit to exercise privileges under 
a free constitution. This Doctor Troy refuted by 
reference to the republics which were established and 
governed by Roman Catholics; but in no instance 
did he institute the slightest comparison between the 
different forms of government. The whole scope of 
the work was to evince, that Roman Catholics, adher- 
ing to the principles of their Church, are loyal and 
dutiful subjects ; because their religion enjoins obe- 
dience to constituted authority, to the power that is 
established under any form of government. In no 
countries has that allegiance to hereditary monarchy 
been more effectively tried and proved than in Great 



486 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

Britain and Ireland, or such sacrifices made by Catholics 
to restore it when dethroned, and to preserve it when 
restored. Indeed the character and writings of this 
prelate, " the steady loyalist," as even Dr. Duigenan 
styled him, should have been a guarantee against 
such an interpretation of any production of his. In 
accordance with that character, in the troubled period 
of 1798, he denounced sentence of excommunication 
against any of his faith and within his diocese, who 
would rise in arms against the government, and in 
consequence thereof a conspiracy was plotted against 
his life, from which he narrowly escaped. 

In 1814 a contest arose between this prelate and 
the grand jury of the city of Dublin, relative to the 
Catholic chaplaincy of the gaol of Newgate. The 
grand jury having appointed one, Doctor Troy sus- 
pended him on the ground of incompetency; the 
former appealed to the Court of King's Bench, and 
were informed by the Chief Justice, that, if the person 
they had selected was not to be found at his post, 
they must proceed to nominate another, and so on 
until the office was substantially filled. The grand 
jury, however, chose to adopt a different course, and 
sent an order to the prison, that no other Catholic 
clergyman should be admitted except him whom 
Doctor Troy had suspended. A disgraceful and 
protracted strife ensued, and the grand jury, in the 
mean time, under the shield of a lingering penal en- 
actment, maintained a suspended clergyman in an 
office which his legitimate pastor declared him unfit 
to fill. In April, 1815, Doctor Troy laid the foun- 



JOHN THOMAS TROY. 487 

dation stone of his metropolitan church, but lived 
not to witness its completion. On the 11th of May, 
1823, he departed this life in the 84th year of his 
age, and was buried, the first corse, in the vaults of 
the temple he had founded ; while the first mass cele- 
brated within its walls was for the repose of his soul. 
He was a truly learned and zealous pastor, attached 
to the honour of his God and his Church and the 
Holy See, a lover and promoter of the most pure 
Christian morality, vigilant in the discharge of his 
duty, and devotedly solicitous, not only for the spiri- 
tual good of those consigned to his charge, but also 
for the public quiet of the State ; and with all this, 
so unassuming and meek was he, that the humblest 
child of his diocese would approach him with confi- 
dence and love ; but it is needless to dwell upon a 
character so vividly impressed upon the hearts of the 
people ; and, even if the recollections of his virtues 
were fading from their memories, the presence of his 
successor would recal and refresh their brightest 
traits. Doctor Troy in truth bequeathed to his pro- 
vince, in the person of that successor, whom himself 
had selected as his coadjutor fourteen years previous 
to his decease, a living and speaking monument of 
all that he had practised as a Christian, or enforced 
as a Bishop, during his long and happy government 
of this province. 



488 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

DANIEL MURRAY. 

[Succ. 1823. Vivens 1838.] 

Doctor Murray was born on the 18th of April, 
1 768, at Sheepwalk, in the parish of Redeross and 
county of Wicklow. At the age of sixteen he was 
sent to Salamanca, where he studied for some years. 
On his return to Ireland, he was appointed a curate 
in the parish of St. Paul, Dublin, whence he was 
shortly afterwards changed to that of Arklow. Here 
he continued until the outrages of 1798 compelled 
him to seek refuge in the metropolis, where he was 
soon afterwards attached to St. Andrew's parish, and 
thence, after a short interval, removed to St. Mary's. 
In 1805, on the consecration of Doctor Ryan to the 
coadjutorship of Ferns, he was named prebendary of 
Wicklow and parish priest of Clontarf, but he de- 
clined the latter preferment. On the 30th of June, 
1809? at the instance of his illustrious predecessor, he 
was, as before suggested, appointed Archbishop of 
Hierapolis and coadjutor of Dublin, and consecrated 
as such in Liffey-street Chapel on the 30th of No- 
vember in this year, Doctor Troy officiating as con- 
secrator, and Doctors Delany and Ryan as assistants. 
On the 16th of January in the following year, after a 
sojourn of several months in the French capital, with 
the object of soliciting restitution of the property be- 
longing to the religious establishments of Irish Ca- 
tholics in that country, he had the satisfaction to ob- 
tain an ordinance, whereby, " in consequence of the 
remonstrance of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ire- 



DANIEL MURRAY. 489 

land, relative to the superintendence which they have 
a right to exercise over the application of the pro- 
perty belonging to their houses, and taking into con- 
sideration the wish expressed by those prelates, the 
Sieur Ferris was ordered to resign the functions of 
administrator-general of the Irish colleges in France, 
and to deliver up to his successor, the moneys, deeds, 
moveables, and effects, belonging to those establish- 
ments ;" and the late Reverend Paul Long was there- 
upon nominated administrator-general of all the Irish 
establishments in France. 

On the death of Doctor Troy in 1823, Doctor 
Murray succeeded to the archbishopric, and in 1825 
was one of the prelates who drew up the pastoral in- 
structions to the clergy and laity of Ireland, exhorting 
the former to the fulfilment of all their obligations ; — 
the steadfast maintenance of an exemplary life, " the 
exemplary life of a pastor preaches more eloquently 
to his parishioners than all his sermons or exhorta- 
tions :" — the vigilant administration of the holy sacra- 
ments ; " nothing can excuse you from the discharge 
of this duty ; nothing can exempt you ; not labour, 
not fatigue, nor watching, nor hunger, nor thirst, nor 
heat, nor cold ; you can have no just cause of delay, 
when pressed on by an obligation so strict and so im- 
portant ; ' — zeal in promoting the honour and love of 
God, but, " in order that zeal be efficient and pro- 
duce fruit, it must be governed and directed by pru- 
dence and charity, that charity which is benign, and 
bears all, and suffers all ^'—vigilance in the moral 
instruction of children, " because, on their religious 

2 K 



490 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLTN. 

education depends not only their own happiness, but 
also that of the Church and of the State ; labour for 
them, as you have hitherto done, through good re- 
port and evil report, seeking aid to assist you in the 
godly work of their education, when you can obtain 
it without a compromise of their most precious faith, 
or of that salutary discipline which surrounds and pro- 
tects it as the walls and ramparts do a city. Turn away 
from them every insidious wile of the deceiver or 
the deceived ; and, whilst you study to have peace 
with all men, do not forget, that you are watchmen 
on the towers of the city of God to detect the am- 
buscades of her enemies Engrave upon the 

tender hearts of the little ones the obedience they 
owe to God, to their parents, to their prince, and to 
all who are placed in authority over them, to inspire 
them with a horror of vice, and a love of virtue ;" — 
the relief of the poor : " your door is the first at which 
the tale of distress, or the cry of misery is heard ; let 
the poor always find in you the sympathy of a father, 
the heart, the bowels of tenderness and compassion ;" — 
the comforting of the sick, especially, "at that awful 
hour, which is, perhaps, to decide their eternal lot ; 
the sinner, at that moment seeing that every thing is 
disappearing from his eyes, that this world and the 
desires thereof, have passed away, that he himself is 
passing like a shadow, will listen with more attention 
to your pious exhortations, he will yield to your sighs 
and to your tears ;" — the amicable adjustment of quar- 
rels and disputes; "seat yourselves down like angels 
of peace in the midst of the dissensions, which may, 



DANIEL MURRAY. 491 

through human infirmity, occur between your people, 
and reconcile, by the sweetness of your manner and 
the attractions of grace, hearts, which for a moment 
may have been alienated from each other." — " Re- 
member, then," concludes the document, "that an 
ecclesiastic, whether officiating in the sanctuary, or 
dwelling in the midst of the world, should appear and 
be a man of superior mind and exalted virtue ; a man 
whose example can improve society, whose irreproach- 
able manners can reflect honour on the Church and 
add to the glory and splendour of religion ; a man, 
whose modesty should be apparent to all men, as the 
apostle recommends, and who should be clothed with 
justice, according to the expression of a prophet." 
This summary of the qualifications and duties of a 
Christian divine has been thus largely extracted, as 
affording the most eloquent illustration of Doctor 
Murray's life and character. " Of the abundance of 
the heart his mouth speaketh." What he inculcated, 
himself effected, what he prescribed he practised ; un- 
shaken, unstained, by even the ruder assaults of an 
Irish element, he stands forth a pillar of strength and 
ornament to the temple of his faith. 

It but remains to state, that in April, 1 829? the 
long deferred measure, that would have made millions 
happy, received the royal assent ; and those cruel 
enactments against the Roman Catholic hierarchy 
and laity, which intolerance had devised in the days 
of Elizabeth, and rapine and fanaticism pressed into 
their service during those of the Stuarts ; those pe- 
nalties and disabilities, which, from the time of the 



492 ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 

accession of the illustrious house of Brunswick* had 
been successively deprecated — relaxed — disused, were 
on this welcome occasion utterly abolished. In ne- 
cessary connexion with the latter portion of these 
memoirs, it has been an unwelcome duty to recal 
some of the bitter inflictions of that penal code, as 
well in the earlier period of its growth and vigour, 
as in the times when, although politically only suf- 
fered to wear out its strength, it was too frequently 
brought forward in mischievous action by evil go- 
vernors and selfish subjects. It has been however 
the object of the author, in introducing such allusions, 
as far as possible to avoid giving any opinions or 
comments of his own, or pertinaciously censuring 
those of others when fairly and honourably dissentient 
from his. The course of his life has been studiously 
removed from party excitements and unholy bigotries, 
and he fondly indulges the hope, he may live to see 
the day, when on their utter extinction, peace, bro- 
therly love, industry, and universal liberty may smile 
upon his native land. 



END OF THE MEMOIRS OF THE ARCHF>ISHOPS OF DUBLIN. 



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